Breaking Boundaries
by Seena58
Summary: Dark, being the only male of a family of six, finds it difficult to cope with the 'rules' of their religion. What is it that they are seeking and why is he the one caught in the middle? Monsters, magic, and dimensions assured. AU
1. Chapter One: The Way We Live

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eeire concept.

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU.

Okay. That's that. Read on.

---

"_If you were scared of what you possessed. If you were afraid of what the result might be…_

_Don't run away. Don't try to hide. There will always be someone there to help you." _-- Akane Takada

--- One: The Way We Live ---

The sound of rain and thunder seemingly crashed in on the peace of a particular household. A girl pulled back her curtains, pouting slightly, as she watched the gray clouds rolling in on them. She was wearing a frilly type of skirt – which was bright pink – and her dark hair was pulled back into two ponytails as gave the sky a meaningful prod with her eyes.

"Why does it have to rain now, Onee-chan?!" she whined, spinning around as she allowed the curtains to fall again. She waited for an answer from one of the other household members, but got none, and she stormed out of the room. "Nee-chan!"

"Bloody hell, can't you just shut up already?" grumbled an older girl as she entered what was supposedly the living room. The lights were dimmed considerably and most of the drapes had been left hanging to block out the somewhat gray sky, although something told them that even pulling them back would have allowed more light. Old-looking chairs and sofas were haphazardly placed within the large room and candles had been lit, giving off an eerie air. "I have to go the friggen' bathroom and your damn brother hogs it!" The dust that settled around them blew in an awkward flurry, and she coughed.

"That doesn't mean you have to tell me off for yelling, Aeka-chan," muttered the other girl with another pout of disapproval. "If he wants to stay in there all day, then I can't stop him. Can't you use one of the other bathrooms?"

"We only have three, and Nina and Christina took over them," replied Aeka mutinously, her short hair looking more frazzled by the minute. "Why the hell we have so many people living here, I'll never know, Karal. Where's Raine?"

"Did someone call my name?" the oldest female of the house entered the room, giving it a disapproving shake of her head. "My my, didn't I tell Christina not to use the candles until night? And what happened to the light, anyway?"

"I think it's Onii-chan's fault again, Raine-chan! But it's not like we use the lights anymore anyway," answered Karal in a gossipy sort of voice. She smoothed her skirt before continuing, voice trailing off into a whiny pitch of self-pity, "But I have to get to Estana-chan's house soon! Where's dad when you need him?!"

"You're the one that's scared of the lights…" muttered Aeka, but not loud enough for the younger girl to hear her. Karal was still whining about the rain and it wasn't long before Aeka decided to change the direction of the conversation. It was just so much fun, getting into arguments with younger siblings.

"What, worried about a bit of rain now, Karal?" She smirked and shook her head. "Carry an umbrella. It doesn't kill. At least, not until I curse it or something."

"Don't do that!"

"Both of you just stop it," muttered Raine in annoyance as the two began to bicker, "And you know that father and mother always stay in that so-called 'temple'. They take their beliefs too far for their own good, especially with leaving the rest of the family home. I am sure that they will come back to talk to us sooner or later."

"That's because we didn't want to go with them," Aeka pointed out, while she tugged Karal's hair, "Who wants to be full-blown Goths anyway. People hate them now. Don't consider them as proper people either. That's just mean."

"At least everyone at school accepts us as who we are," said Karal, yanking her hair free, "otherwise Nina might have cursed them or something! … Do you think that she threatened them before we arrived or something?"

"Of course I didn't!" yelled a voice as a door was pushed open. A girl with naturally spiky dark-blue hair entered the room and gave them all a crooked smile. "You know that I wouldn't do that UNLESS someone was making fun of you guys first. They were pretty understanding, as a matter of fact. At least at our school. Don't know about him."

"Ah… so you finally finished using the bathroom, Nina!" Aeka half-bellowed as she ran out of the room. They fell silent as they listened to the other girl sprinting down the hallway, down a flight of stairs, and the bathroom door slamming hard close by. Nina, who was the third oldest sister, gave them a bewildered look. "What was that about?"

"Dunno," Karal shrugged.

"Diarrhea?" suggested Raine, as she finally took a seat. "And Karal, you can't go out today anyway. We have to have a… family meeting."

"Eh?! But we just had one yesterday!"

"Oh… Raine-san…" another girl with light violet hair and glasses poked her head into the room, "Did you… um… call?"

"Christina, it's okay, nothing's wrong," reassured the oldest member as she waved a hand to indicate them to take a seat. "But we have to have everyone one here before we can start."

"Ah… but I have a feeling that something will go wrong though," the youngest fiddled with her glasses as she entered properly, her shoulder-length hair pulled back neatly while her jeans and parka looked fairly wrinkled, "Is something happening to Onii-san again?"

"No, not him, although I do have to ask him a few questions at hand."

"I'm back," called Aeka – now cheerfully – as she reentered the room, hair finally brushed back properly. She then pulled out a piece of paper out of her pocket, stared at it, and threw it away before turning to Raine, "Want me to call him now? He's been in there for half an hour, I'm sure of it."

"Go ahead. We don't have all day." She nodded her consent. The second oldest female took a deep breath – while the other covered their ears – and then released the air she'd been holding in her lungs. The sound carried most likely out of the house and at least two streets across and down, warning everyone outside to stay away from their house for the time being.

"DARK! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW OR I'LL DO IT MYSELF!"

"… CAN'T YOU SHUT UP ALREADY, SOME PEOPLE ARE BUSY HERE!" came the equally loud reply, except in a male's voice. "SHOW SOME RESPECT TO A PERSON'S PRIVACY ALREADY!"

"DIDN'T I JUST TELL YOU TO GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE?!" Aeka shrieked impatiently, "IF YOU AREN'T DOWN HERE BY THE COUNT OF TWO, I AM SO GONNA GET RID OF ANY PRIVACY YOU HAD LEFT! AND I'M SERIOUS THIS TIME!"

"Ae… Aeka-san…" stammered Christina nervously as she hid behind a plush chair that flopped under her touch pitifully, "That… that was scary…"

"He only has two seconds though," Karal stated cheerfully, pointing at the luminous clock that hung on the wall close by them, "One… one millionth of a second, two millionthofasecondthreemillionthofasecond…"

"I'm here already! Geez!" the only male of the entire household stomped in angrily, his dark violet hair looking messier than usual. His clothes also seemed a bit put on too quickly, since both items of clothing he had on were wrinkled to the point where one had to wonder if they had just been in the washing machine. "What the hell is wrong with you, Aeka? Yeesh… people these days…"

"Dark, you're the only male in this family, we have a… tradition to uphold," Raine said calmly before Aeka could reply. "I know that you don't like the idea of being part of a more… absurd or strange community, but we're not asking you to prance around the streets claiming you religion or who you are. Christina seems to be the only other one who agrees with you, though."

"Raine, what is it this time?" Dark, having heard the same line repeated time after time before each meeting, chose not to reply and crossed his arms, while Christina went over to him for support. "Why are we having another meeting so soon? We already agreed on all that crap you were on about last time and I have a meeting with Krad today--"

"Ah… that's one of the points I want to discuss," cut in the oldest member. "About your choice of friends… you do know that both our parents are against his… _type _and the worst that could happen to you would be… well, mental torture. Haven't we already told you that you should drop your friendship with him and move on? Not to mention your… spare time around with him and those others… Niwa, Hiwatari… they're names that will be the end of you."

"We're not starting this argument again, are we?" Dark asked in annoyance, sighing. "Like I told you, if you can't stand any of that, then I can move outta here and that will be that. I don't care about this whole Goth stuff and I'm not dissin' it or anything, but it's not for me."

"Dark onii-san…" Christina started nervously, "But if you leave now… I… I, um… would you?"

"Hey, I can take care of myself," he smiled reassuringly at the youngest member of the family, "If anything, you could move in with me!"

"Dark, don't be ridiculous!" Raine snapped, slamming a hand across the coffee table, "It's bad enough that you drifted away from your roots, but to drag Christina away as well is…" she bit her lip, "And with you forever meeting them… especially HIM…"

"You know, I think Dark-chan and Hikari-kun are more than good friends," started Karal in a tone of excited gossiping, "You see, a few weeks back, when I was going home from--"

"Shut up, Karal, if you want to see another day." The seriousness of his voice and the underlying danger were clear and she bit her lip quickly, giving him a look close to saying 'why are you so mean to me?'. He ignored it as Aeka stepped up to speak her peace.

"But Raine, you said that we didn't have to follow the 'rules' exactly," she pointed out calmly, "And Dark has his rights, especially since he's the only guy here. None of us can stop him."

"And nothing's wrong about liking a person of the same gender anyway! If Karal was about to say that stuff," added Nina.

"Why? Because you're also like that?"

"You're saying that you didn't know?"

"… You're so straightforward with your words, Nina…"

"I will tell you this just one last time, Dark," Raine said softly, as she pulled out a deck of tarot cards, "Stop associating with these people before father and mother come back. The last thing they need to know is that their only son is with people like that."

"Please," Dark laughed and smoothed his wrinkled shirt out, "You really don't expect me to do that now, do you?"

"Dark…" she started dangerously.

"No way, Raine, not on your life," he snorted, "And I don't care about being disowned or anything. If that's the case, you can just say it right now and I'll leave. Simple."

"Dark-san…" started Christina softly, tugging at his shirt, "You don't mean that… you're really…"

"And don't think that I don't know about you, Christina," added Riane wearily, "Making friends with those… people as well. Drop them now, please, and save your soul before it's too late."

"I… I can't Onee-san, I just can't," whispered the youngest member, taking a deep breath, "They're not bad people! Just because they're different from us doesn't change who they are in the inside! We're all people, we're all living creatures! You can't tell us who to make friends with and not!" she gasped and covered her mouth, surprised with what she had just said.

"Punishment!" crowed Karal excitedly, leaning on her chair, "Ooh! I can't wait to see this!"

"Dark, if you're going, I suggest you go now," both Aeka and Nina suggested, and he nodded, thanking them both. Taking Christina's hand – which was shaking slightly out of fear – he pulled her gently away from the living room, Raine sat up sharply, pointing a finger towards them.

"And where do you think you're going?" she asked in a dangerously soft voice. "We haven't finished the meeting yet, Dark."

"Well, I'm done for now," he retorted, "And Christina's coming with me. I wouldn't want to leave her with you while you're in THAT mood for sure. We'll be back, not like we have anywhere else to go…"

"…"

It wasn't too long before the remaining four girls heard the distinctive sound of the front door slamming shut before silence fell over them. Raine drew out some cards from the deck she'd been holding and placed them on the table for all to see.

"Before I trailed off, I wanted to warn all people with Gothic background and blood to not leave their homes tonight," she said, almost sadly, "All lines of connection has broken already, and they're after us again."

"Again?" squeaked Karal, hands over mouth in horror. "Why again?"

"I don't know."

"This is beyond serious Raine," Aeka said softly, "Why didn't you just tell us instead of letting Dark and Christina go? You know that they'll get in trouble."

"They have to learn their lesson," Raine replied, in a cold voice, eyes glazing over slightly, "They won't follow my lead, then they'll have to do it the hard way. You'll see, they'll come through."

"… Aeka, can you help me clean up my room?" Nina asked calmly, and the two left. Raine watched them with narrowed eyes, the cards on the table glowing eerily and the candle on the mantelpiece flickering dangerously.

"Nina…" started the second oldest member, as soon as the door was shut. "Did you…"

"She's becoming just like her…" whispered Nina, almost fearfully.

"I know…" Aeka's eyes narrowed, as if trying to sense something that couldn't be seen on their side of the world, "I know exactly what you mean by that, Nina… but we can only hope that it doesn't happen…"

"She's becoming just like mother…"

"…" she bowed her head.

---

"Dark-san… onee-san… is it really okay for us to leave like that?" asked Christina hesitantly as she allowed herself to be pulled by her older brother, "She's going to be so mad at us…"

"For what? Thinking for ourselves?" Dark frowned as he held the large umbrella over his head, "Who knows how warped their minds are already, from all that Gothic belief stuff they read all the time… ah! Here we are! Don't worry, Krad won't be mad at me for taking you with me, he liked you."

"R-really?"

"Yeah, you're the most stable one out of the girls in that family. Not that Aeka and Nina are insane yet…" he reassured her as he hit a doorbell. They heard the chime inside the house, and it wasn't long before someone answered the door.

"Who is it—oh, Dark."

"Hey Krad!"

"And you brought your sister along as well?" Krad raised an eyebrow slightly in question, "Another argument about your beliefs?"

"You could say."

Krad opened the door to allow them entry into his own home, golden hair tied back in its usual ponytail. While the two boys greeted each other (which really just involved Krad choking Dark for being late and Dark yelling back as he tried to breath), Christina took a look down the hallway, marveled by the different form of décor the Hikari family used compared to her own family. It was always so… bright and cheerful, she decided. She walked down it until she was hailed by a voice she recognized quite well.

"Christina-chan? What are you doing here?"

"Daisuke-san…" she turned to face the person. Daisuke Niwa waved her over from their side of the room cheerfully, accompanied by a boy his own age with cerulean hair. Christina liked the contrast; blue and red, red and blue. It was almost as amusing as the blonde and violet mix that sometimes happened when she saw Dark and Krad at school when they were sleeping. They were so cute. Although the fact that Dark liked to stay up incredibly late and only have three hours of sleep wasn't good for his health, but she knew she couldn't change his sleeping patterns even if his life depended on it.

She pushed the thoughts away and smiled nervously at the two older boys before sitting down. The room they were in also held a startling cheerful and bright air that drowned out the rain and the choice of call colour made her slightly jealous of what the Hikari family possessed that hers didn't. Again, she pushed her thoughts away, not wanting to wallow into self-pity in front of people other than family. They probably wouldn't understand, and she couldn't risk it.

"Why are you and Hiwatari-kun here as well, Daisuke-san?" she asked, recovering and fidgeting with her glasses at the same time. Satoshi Hiwatari – the blue-haired boy, obviously - raised an eyebrow in her direction, but it was the redhead that answered.

"Ah, it's a group project. Dark-kun didn't tell you that, did he?" he smiled, "So, why're you here, Christina-chan?"

"Eh? Uhm…" she stammered, ducking her head to look at her knees, "Onii-chan, he, um… he just…"

"Eh? Chris-chan?" another male's voice – younger though – perked up, and a boy with the same shade of hair colour of Satoshi's entered the room. He gave one of the chairs close by a disgruntled kick and muttered in annoyance before collapsing on a seat next to Christina. "What'cha doin' here?"

"Kaz-kun?" she looked up in surprise.

"Hm? Did you get lost again?" Daisuke asked the other boy innocently, and he ducked his head, similar to what Christina had been doing only moments ago.

"Damn Hikari estate's too big. Don't know how he manages…" muttered the other boy, and Satoshi shook his head.

"Don't get started or I'm making them pick you up early. Sing songs and play with Leah, if you can take it."

"Ugh! No thanks… Satoshi---," whined the disgusted Kaz, who was also the middle child of the Hiwatari family; the resemblance was obvious from hair, eye colour, and way too serious nature, which was humorous on it's own accord. The youngest child and only girl Leah was the most hyperactive of them all and was also violent, which wasn't a good combination either way. "But I'm going to die of boredom just sitting here. Why did the rain have to ruin it all?"

"Well, keep Christina company, then," replied the oldest Hiwatari member coolly, "We do have a project to finish."

"Ah… sure, whatever," the other boy got up and then smiled in an almost sheepish way, "You wanna go somewhere else and explore, Chris-chan?"

"Sure, I guess…"

When the two younger children left the room, Daisuke watched as Dark and Krad entered. The violet haired one was pouting slightly while the blonde remained expressionless.

"Why do we have to do a joint project with a class three years younger than us?" whined Dark, "No offense, you two, but the entire syllabus is completely screwed up, if you ask me."

"You didn't do any of the research at school though, Dark-kun," Daisuke pointed out, "If you had, then you wouldn't have to be here then. Today, anyway. It's really your fault when you think about it."

"Dai-chan!" the older teen pouted at his – younger – friend in annoyance, "That's a mean thing to say! I didn't think you were capable of saying that."

"Not only that, but you're half an hour late," Satoshi cut in smoothly as he took a look at his wristwatch. "Tell us what happened this time."

"Family again, wasn't it?" Krad said as he sat down. "Didn't want you 'associating' with us again, wasn't it? 'Our type' is the wrong type? What, are we contaminated or something now?"

"Nah," Dark scratched the back of his head as he took a seat next to the blonde, "Usual family argument, I have to admit. But man, they're getting persistent. And I don't see what's wrong with hanging around you guys, either."

"Must be a cult thing."

"Hm…"

"Are they going to kick you out of the house, Dark-kun?" asked Daisuke, eyes wide in question. Out of the four boys, Daisuke didn't have any younger – or older – siblings and the thought of fighting didn't appeal to him.

"It's bound to be soon, anyway," he shrugged. "But since I am the only guy that family's got, they can't afford to lose me, can they?"

"You'll be punished for coming here again, though," Krad pointed out, "And your sister, since she got dragged here as well."

"Well, Christina's the only one who knows reality. Aeka and Nina are supporting us, but it's really Raine. She's the problem."

"What was the meeting for? Just that?" asked Satoshi, looking at a sheet of paper he was currently holding.

"Uh… I don't know, actually." Silence filled the room for a moment, until Daisuke finally gave in and stood up.

"Do I really have to do this?" he asked.

"Yeah," Dark and Krad replied in unison.

"Ugh, fine," the redhead mumbled incoherently for a moment. "Satoshi-kun, can you just help a bit? And Krad-kun and Dark-kun as well… more help, less time, ne?" They all got up, knowing what their task was, and went to work silently.

Lights were dimmed and the center of the room was cleared of all furniture. Daisuke stood in the center while the others kept away at a respective distance, and he began to mouth words softly, the actually sounds not leaving his throat as he started the simple procedure of communication with the 'other' world. For a moment there was silence, and then…

"Ah, I don't want to alarm you, but…" the redhead blinked while Krad turned the lights back on. As they rearranged the furniture again, Dark couldn't help but prod the younger boy for what had happened first.

"It was about me, wasn't it?" he demanded. "Well, if that's the case, then I want to know now."

"Well, I guess it's better to warn you before it's happened," admitted Daisuke, "But it's not just you. It's your younger sister as well. You see… monsters are coming after you. I don't know which world, though, so…"

"Shit," Dark muttered something before turning to Satoshi, "Hey, creep. You know about those monsters I saw you researching a few days back?"

"What about them?" the blue-haired boy replied coolly.

"Seems they're coming this way. Krad, you'll have to supply weapons then."

"Oh…" the blonde went over and frowned at Dark, "So now I have monsters on my doorstep because of you, is it?"

"Nah, not your fault, Krad. Not anyone's," the other teen said in a distracted tone, as he looked around the room for support. "These monster things like to kill people of certain… religions, as you can call it, and the people are supposed to hide in their houses until it comes to pass. Course it's the stupidest thing I've heard since the time Karal was going on about having a boyfriend, but I'm sure the four of us can handle it."

"Us?" repeated Krad skeptically.

----

Okay, I know I started another story, but I don't care. And no, I'm not Gothic, and I have nothing against them, in case you're wondering. The main focus is on Dark, so yeah, and he has a very extended family. Let's see… Raine's 22, Aeka's 18, Dark's 17, Nina's 16, Karal (what kind of name is that?) is 13, and Christina is 11. So… yeah. In case you were wondering. Hope you liked it. I have two other chapters done, but I'll put them up next week… just to see if you like this story or not.


	2. Chapter Two: Monster on the Loose

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept.

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU.

Well, here's chapter 2. Glad you enjoyed the first chap.

---

"_If you were scared of what you possessed. If you were afraid of what the result might be…_

_Don't run away. Don't try to hide. There will always be someone there to help you." _-- Akane Takada, classmate at school.

"_To hate those who are not like you, to seek those who are just like you… only fools think of such things, but what can they do about it?_

_Why is it that you don't trust them? It is not like they are an alien species…_

_Dark, you know what you're doing."_

-- Aeka, second oldest of the family.

--- Two: Monsters on the Loose ---

The rain wasn't letting off anytime soon, and Krad was still glaring at Dark while the other two moved about the room, preparing for the worse. Weapons had been piled into the room, while the blonde's parents were also glaring daggers at the dark-haired teen.

"They're going to kill you if I get hurt," Krad muttered.

"Are you saying that I wouldn't protect you?" grinned Dark, "Come on, we all know how violent you can be."

"And I'll be more violent if you pull me into this again," was the hissed reply.

"Don't be so cold."

The mother pulled away from her glaring-at-Dark vigil and went over to the foursome, face completely serious. Her hair was pulled back as always and her eyes had narrowed to slits, but her voice was that of deadly forced calm.

"Dark, I know this involves you, but if anyone gets hurt because of this…"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Hikari," Daisuke said from his side of the room, "From the sounds of it, the monsters aren't that strong, so I'm sure we can handle it well enough without too much trouble." He then pulled out a sword with weird carvings at the hilt, light flickering off the steel blade, "Satoshi-kun, do you think this can help? It looks sharp enough…"

Satoshi looked up from the bow and arrows he'd been occupying himself with, "Hm… I'd say Krad could use it, is he was in the mood."

"What was that?" asked the blonde softly.

"You heard me."

"…"

"Okay, Dark-kun, do you think you could use this?" the redhead tugged at something at the bottom of the pile, that mainly consisted of rusted chains and daggers. A large hilt was at the bottom, and Dark went over to help Daisuke. Once they had finally pulled it free from the mess, it turned out to be a long blade that was about the same height at Daisuke. The dark-haired teen whistled in awe, holding it up with both hands.

"Hey, this is pretty cool."

"I'm suspecting that Daisuke's taking back row-magic potential again?" Krad stated calmly as he held up his sword, looking down the keen blade. "Satoshi's back row-attack and Dark and I are front row-risk-our-asses?"

"Correct," Satoshi said calmly, strapping a quiver of arrows to his back as he tucked the bow under his arm. Daisuke was equipped with a rod with loads of runes embedded in them while Dark had the large heavy-blade. Krad, of course, had the sword and they exchanged looks before nodding and making their way out of the house.

"Onii-san!" Christina called as she stumbled over in their direction. "Is this… is this because of us?!"

"Don't worry," Dark smirked as he continued, "Nothing's gonna happen. Trust me on this one and don't even think about going outside. I don't want to risk my ass on more people than I can handle."

"Hmph, when do you watch out for other people," snorted Satoshi right behind him. "Can't even see you doing that. It's always about your own safety first, as I recall…"

"Hey! Don't say things that aren't true, you creepy bastard!"

"Dark-kun! Satoshi-kun!" Daisuke reprimanded them.

"Both of you, stop arguing," Krad muttered as well, "We have larger things to deal with at the moment, so you two argue later."

Christina watched in silent horror as the four boys left the safety of the house and into the raging storm outside. She sniffed and clasped her hands together in a form of silent prayer. Pray that no one would get hurt and that Dark wouldn't do something stupid like the last time he'd decided that fighting monsters was a good idea.

Then all she could do was wait… and hope.

---

"Dammit!" yelled Dark as soon as the door slammed shut behind them. "If it wasn't raining so damn hard than it would be easier to know who the hell we're supposed to attack in the first place! Hey, Creep, let's see if your powers are any use here, eh?" He turned around hopefully and grinned.

"Shut up."

"… Dark has a point though," Krad agreed, as he shielded his eyes from the rain, his hair already plastered to his clothes, which were also already drenched as soon as they had stepped off the porch and the safety of the roof. "You probably hate manipulating nature like this, but the reason is pretty obvious, unless you want to be attacked from behind, when you can't even see what's in front of you."

"…" Satoshi snorted, "Fine. But this is the last time I'm doing this."

"Hey, it's your ONLY time as well!"

"Dark-kun!" Daisuke frowned, but knew that it couldn't be seen anyway, "Even if it is manipulating, at least you know that it isn't used for power alone. If the spell's temporary, then it should be fine, right Satoshi-kun?"

"Right…"

"Just hurry up the process already!" snapped Dark, "No mushy-headed talk back there or the enemy'll get us before we know where the hell's the front door again!"

"Can't you just shut up?" asked Krad, while the blue-haired boy began to work on a spell, which involved a lot of muttering and hand-waving, which was funny to watch, but since the situation was a bit too serious for it… Dark decided to laugh at him later.

It wasn't long before the rain began to clear up and they were able to identify the lamps that glowed a really dim orange colour. It also involved three to five lumbering shadows coming towards them, and Daisuke inclined his head for a moment, rod pointing at the figures.

"They're really slow…" he muttered.

"Well, then, take the initiative!" replied Dark cheerfully, about to run over to start the fight. He was, of course, jerked back forcefully by someone/someones pulling at his hair and shirt from behind. He whined at the pain in his hair and turned to glare at whoever was causing the pain in the first place. "What was that for?!"

Krad didn't bother to let of his friend's hair. "You're going to die if you keep rushing into battle like that."

Satoshi nodded in agreement, being the one tugging at the shirt. "Daisuke needs to do a complete analysis first, otherwise we don't know what to do to stop these… things."

"I told you I already know them!" protested Dark, yanking both hair and shirt free from the tight grips and wincing, "The damn monsters attacked me before, ya know!"

All three stopped and stared at him in disbelief before asking in unison, "What?"

The dark-haired teen shrugged, "Tell ya later, but these things have strong defense and offense, so we can't take any chances…"

"Shouldn't you be telling that to yourself?" muttered Satoshi in the background, notching a shaft to the bow.

"ANYWAY, magic-wise, I don't think they absorb anything, so Dai-chan, you can cast whatever you want at it."

"Right," the redhead nodded, "Although I'm more of a defense magic person… Satoshi-kun, do you have your phone by any chance?"

The blue-haired boy nodded and handed the required object, which Daisuke began to punch a number into. While he was doing that, the other three turned to face the monsters, whatever they were.

"Ready?" asked Dark, smirking.

"If anything bad happens, I'm going to kill you," Krad replied.

"Aww… don't you trust me to protect you?"

"Just shut up and get the battle started, otherwise they'll get here," Satoshi cut in before the argument could continue. Krad and Dark ran ahead with Satoshi following close behind while Daisuke was left with the phone, which was currently ringing in his ear.

"C'mon, pick up, pick up, pick up…" he muttered under his breath, like a mantra, "Where are you now?"

---

The phone was ringing insistently, she noticed, as she pulled her hair up with a wet towel, having just finished having her shower. Since no one else lived in the house over half the time, there was no point hoping that someone else would pick it up in the end. Fire-orange eyes gleamed as she blinked at the ringing object before picking it up, confused with who would call her at that time of the day.

"Hello, Takada residence. Akane speaking…" she began calmly, pushing back wet strands of hair out of the way. There was a moment of static within the phone before a voice picked up from the other end.

"Takada-san, it's Niwa…"

"Eh?" she blinked and inclined her head, the phone now resting on her shoulder, "Is something wrong?"

"Attack. Hikari residence."

Akane understood instantly. Whipping off the wet towel, she replied quickly before replacing the phone. "I'll be right there."

---

As the mobile clicked off from the broken connection, Daisuke stuck it in his pocket before running over to join the battle.

… If it could be called one, anyway.

As far as the redhead could see, Dark and Krad were pretty much jumping around and slashing at the bulky objects whenever they had the chance to. And then there was the odd arrow shaft being embedded in the monster, which grumbled in a low-key tone. And… well, there was blood everywhere, it would seem, splattering across the concrete streets.

Daisuke gave a nervous look at the big bulky monster things, that couldn't be properly seen because of the horrible lighting, and then shrugged it off quickly, getting ready to cast a spell. Defense first, basic offense later; that was his role in the fighting ordeal.

He has never been good at attacking with magic anyway, that was left to his cousin, whenever there was a serious monster attack, which there was rarely there. Healing was the key to keeping alive and he swept the rod up crossways, a shimmering of magical aura following after it in wisps. The monsters didn't seem that strong, but they were still outnumbered…

With a sigh and ignoring the bloody scene before him, Daisuke readied himself for a most likely long battle.

---

Dark jumped out of the way as a large claw swept by him and sent his blade into a downward slash, which created a shallow cut in the flesh. He cursed slightly before leaping forwards, stabbing down as hard as he could.

Krad seemed to be in the same predicament, his sword slashing so quickly that it really couldn't be seen except by the light reflecting off the keen blade. Speed had always been the blonde's forte, and it was obvious that he wouldn't be tiring out anytime soon. But because the monster's – whatever they really were – strong defense, it was beginning to get on his nerves, due to the fact that it was taking too long to actually hurt it.

There was a flash of dark blue light and the two dodged the magical spell that Daisuke had just cast, which, upon coming contact with the monsters, gave off the effect of a small explosion. Pulling back and pushing back his hair, Dark turned to check on Krad.

"Oi, you okay?"

"Could have been worse," replied the blonde grimly, holding the sword's hilt with his free hand, wiping rainwater off his face. Or was it sweat? Pulling his hand back, he noticed blood. "Shit."

"What?! You got hurt?!"

"Nah…" Krad gave Dark a sarcastic look, "You just noticed it now? Besides, it's not that bad."

"You're parents are gonna kill me!"

"…"

Daisuke shook his head and waved a hand desperately at the monsters. "They're coming your way! Dark-kun! Krad-kun!"

The two turned and on instinct jumped back as the monsters attacked in sync, creating more than enough craters in the concrete. Satoshi cursed under his breath as he saw the results of their attack.

"They might not be that strong on their own, but as a group…" he muttered. "We haven't even defeated one of them yet."

"Leave it to me!" yelled Dark, now serious, as he jumped into the fray of the monsters little groupie-like hustle. Krad shook his head and muttered something about Dark being an absolute moron before rejoining the battle, ignoring the blood that trickled down his face. At least it wasn't getting into his eyes, Daisuke had noted, conjuring up a healing spell to help.

There was more blood, cursing, and sword slashing until one of the many monsters had finally fallen to the concrete and had gone limp. By that time, of course, Dark and Krad were suffering more than minor injuries while Daisuke and Satoshi seemed to be suffering more out of fatigue and loss of energy than anything else.

The blonde gave Dark a glare and muttered under his breath, "Are you sure that the last time you fought these you didn't run away?" he hissed.

"They're… stronger… and more…" came the reply. "But how…"

"There're too many though," Daisuke called, "I don't think we'll be able to deal with it…"

Chunks of concrete was spilled everywhere and the street was a chaotic mess. A light sprinkle of rain had already begun and the monsters were slowly approaching the small group. Krad struggled to stand up, eyes glinting off a hatred that very few had seen, and the reasons were clearly unknown. Nevertheless, his sword began to shimmer with dark golden energy and he leapt at the monsters yet again.

"Oi, Krad!" yelled Dark, getting up as well and wincing as pain shot through his leg, "Wait up!"

Of course, Krad was too fast to keep up and the other three couldn't do anything besides watch as the sword glistened with the unearthly power and unleashed a wrath within the blonde that no one knew of.

This, of course, made Satoshi think a bit. 'Why would it be now that something like this would happen…'

The attack continued until Krad practically collapsed, his breathing coming out like ragged gasps as Dark shook his slightly by the shoulders, yelling at him somewhat. "Dammit, Krad, what the hell were you thinking?! Your mind is way screwed up and were you trying to kill yourself out there?!"

"… Shut up, Dark."

"WHAT?! And I'm not supposed to worry?!"

"He has a strange way of worrying," Daisuke observed.

"… They're still here," Satoshi shook his head, "We can't defeat them like this."

The monsters were nearly upon them until a large beam of dark energy shot down on them out of nowhere and stopped them in their tracks. The redhead smiled in relief as someone came running up to them.

A girl their age was panting as her plait flapped out behind her. Her hair was a mix of dark brown with a tinge of red and her eyes were a deep colour of fire-orange, it would seem. Gasping and clutching a stitch in her side, she looked at the monsters and smiled grimly.

"Sorry I'm late, Niwa-kun," she said in between gasps, "Had a little problem with the people below… and monsters are streaming everywhere. Had a hard time getting here without confrontations.

… What are they?"

"We don't know," he replied quickly to his classmate, "but they're really strong."

"Great."

The monsters had limbs half torn off by now and blood was spilling everywhere; the sight was beyond gruesome and Daisuke was feeling slightly sick now, as was practically everyone else. They had stopped now, though, and were only a few feet away from Dark and the half-conscious Krad.

A still silence rang through the sky, as Akane prepared another spell while Daisuke got ready for more healing, but before they could actually move or do anything, there was a large tidal wave of energy that knocked everyone back forcefully.

Dark turned upwards slightly, watching as the monsters disintegrated into the night sky, dark purple clouds swirling above them, almost like a warning. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard a cold voice and shivered, pulling Krad unconsciously closer to himself.

"_We will meet again, little ones, we will meet again."_

Akane looked up, confused, "What… just… happened?"

"I don't know," replied Satoshi, "but I think we should go back inside before anything else happens."

"I agree," nodded Daisuke as he pulled himself up. He then stopped as he noticed that Dark looked pretty unhinged, "Dark-kun? Is something the matter? You look really bad…"

"Didn't you hear it?" replied the teen in a low voice, shaking somewhat. The redhead blinked and looked over his shoulder.

"Heard what?"

"That voice!"

"Voice?"

"Wait… didn't any of you hear it?" Dark demanded, and everyone else shook their heads. He slumped in disbelief, "No way…"

"Get inside," muttered Satoshi as he and Daisuke helped him get up and half-dragged him into the Hikari house. Akane waved to them, still looking grim, as she made her way home through the incoming shower.

Unknown to any of them, blood red eyes from the clouds watched them before fading off.

They had been able to destroy one of the strongest monster creations ever known, and they had only been hurt a little.

They were not to be taken lightly.

---

Krad's mother was being held back by the father as she tried to get to Dark, most likely planning ways to kill him while they watched over the unconscious blonde. She was also hurling insults and curses – which was very uncharacteristic for the lady of the Hikari house – forgetting the fact that she was in the presence of guests as well as he own children.

Satoshi thought it best to try to calm her down as well and they dragged her off into another room, leaving Dark and Daisuke with Krad. Conjuring up a simple healing spell would have been easier, the redhead observed, if he hadn't been so tired out by the battle.

"That was some battle, huh?" Dark chuckled half-heartedly, his injuries already bandaged up by Daisuke. "Been a while since we had such a good fight with monsters."

"Dark-kun!" reprimanded Daisuke. "How can you say that when you about to get killed by those things! ... What were they anyway?"

"Like hell I'd know," came back the low reply. "But they seem to be after the really religious freaks, or those with the blood and family traits. Those are the really scary strong ones. But I don't know why they're after us…"

"Dark-kun…" Daisuke jerked around as he heard Krad groan in pain, but was pushed away by Dark.

"Krad, you okay now?!" he almost-yelled. The blonde winced slightly before pushing a strand of hair out of his face. His reply was too calm for his own good, was the first thing Dark noticed.

"You're too loud for your own good. Go home."

"… That's all the thanks I get?!"

"Thanks for what? I did most of the work."

"Wha--?!"

"Oh yeah, Krad-kun," Daisuke looked over Dark's shoulder, "What was that power that you unleashed? It was really strong…"

The blonde tried to sit up but failed miserably. He flopped back and covered his face with a pale hand, thinking it over for a while before finally replying. "I actually don't know…"

"Hm…"

"Dark-kun, I think we should let him rest now," the redhead tugged at his friend's arm; "He won't heal any faster with you around, you know. And Mrs. Hikari isn't very happy with you either."

"…" Dark gave Krad one last look before leaving the room. They met up with Satoshi, Christina and Kaz at the hallway. The rain had finally decreased to more of a drizzle and they all left the Hikari residence together.

It wasn't long before Dark and Christina had to take a different road and that left Daisuke, Satoshi and Kaz. The blue-haired boy merely frowned for a moment before speaking up.

"How's Krad then?"

"Hm? Well, he'll live, but I won't be doing much for the next few days," replied the redhead, "Not to mention we didn't do our project."

"I think we can handle that at school anyway," Satoshi shrugged before looking over at his younger brother, "And don't tell them about what happened, got it Kaz?"

"Of course," came the lofty reply, "If I told mum and dad about the terrible monsters and how you got involved with them you would get into so much trouble it wouldn't be funny. Not to mention they would blame me for not clinging onto you and begging not to do that."

"Correct."

"Satoshi-kun, are you going to find out about these monster things?" asked Daisuke, as they turned a corner. "They were really powerful this time. And what was that about a voice?"

"I have no idea," Satoshi said, "But it may be an important part to whatever's going on."

"Hm…"

---

"Onii-san?"

"Hm?" grunted Dark, not looking at Christina as they trudged home in the gloom that surrounded them. "What's wrong now?"

"Um… about before… when we left… aren't they going to be mad at us?" the young girl fidgeted as she stared at the concrete below her. "I mean… what are they going to do to us?"

"I really couldn't care less," came the reply, "But if they do anything to you… I have to say, at least some of us are still a bit sane, so to speak. Not that Aeka and Nina are that bad, but they're not ones to stand up for themselves."

"But what about Karal and Raine Onee-san?" this of course worried Christina more than anything else.

"Well, whatever it is, I'll deal with it," Dark stopped as they reached the front door of the forbidding house. Gloom seemed to stretch out by such a structure and he sometimes had to wonder why the hell they were living there.

Shaking the thoughts away, Dark entered the house as they prepared for the worst.

---

And there you have it. Once I work out how many siblings the others have, I'll let you know. Not too sure myself. Guess you can call this a cliffhanger, so… until next week!

Oh yeah, one thing I want to ask. Dark and his family have no surname as of yet. Why? Well, Mousy is kinda… not really a surname. If you can think of another surname I can use, then that's great. But if you think Mousy is a good enough surname, I'll just use that. Thank you.

**Neko-nya: **thank you! And, well, yeah, the next chap. I'm so lazy and evil… I like to drag things out as much as I can.

**Soralovesriku: **well, this is chapter two. You'll have to wait for chapter 3 now… and then chapter 4… yeah.

**Mujyakina-Hitokoroshiya: **uh… I have absolutely no idea. They're probably at an even level, since they're fighting abilities are close to the same… not really sure… -scratches head-

**Hakudoshi-chan: **thanks for the review! Glad you like it!

**SpinningAvia:**I seem to have a thing with cliffhangers, huh? Oh well, if you can survive another week…

**Keeper of Light: **I don't know about great… but thank you for the review. And here is the next chapter. Hope you like it!


	3. Chapter Three: Family, Punishments, Bloo

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept. Oh, and all the spelling and grammatical errors you can find. I own them! … To some extent.

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU.

Ha… I must be insane. No comment from me.

---

"_To hate those who are not like you, to seek those who are just like you… only fools think of such things, but what can they do about it?_

_Why is it that you don't trust them? It is not like they are an alien species…_

_Dark, you know what you're doing."_

-- Aeka, second oldest of the family.

"_You can't escape the blood that you have, you cannot escape what the future has in store for you._

_You can't keep running away from everything… you will have to face the truth."_

-- Raine, oldest of the family.

--- Three: Family, Punishments, Blood is Blood ---

As expected, the interior of the house was as equally gloomy as the exterior and Dark muttered a few words under his breath. Slowly the lights flickered on – not the candles, that were usually used, but the actual lights that were stuck on the ceilings. These were the types of things that he did just to annoy the really religious of the family.

Christina was shivering, not wanting to face the consequences, yet not wanting to get on the wrong side of her older sisters - they had been the ones who had taken care of here since birth after their parents had left, and they were the only family she had. But, as a second thought, they were so intimidating, not to mention controlling, wanting her to do everything they told her to.

Nina bounced out of a room close by, looking fairly flustered when she greeted them. In the usual cheerful fashion, of course. "So, had a fun time? I see you found the light switch again; Raine's not going to be happy about that. What about the monsters? Are you hurt?" It was really weird, seeing her both flustered and cheerful at the same time – very unnerving.

"We're just fine." Dark smirked at her. "Did you think I was incapable of taking care of myself now?"

"Oh no, but now you have to face Raine and Karal…" she scratched the back of her head, "They weren't happy, and they won't be any happier knowing that you survived that without any injuries at all, so… I'll just take Christina now, shall I? Aeka knows what to do."

Knowing that what she was talking about was far from punishment, Dark nodded and Christina left. The dark-haired teen couldn't help but sigh at the thought of what kind of family he'd been placed into. They were just so damn…

"Sadistic freaks…" he muttered under his breath, as the lights seemed to glow faintly brighter as he continued on his way. It wasn't that long before he reached the main living room – or something – and it didn't surprise him to see Karal hiding under the table and Raine having pulled a dark hood over her face. He couldn't help but grin: it was time to bait Karal, just for the fun of it.

"What, scared of the lights now? Think they're gonna kill you?"

"This is none of your business, Dark…"

"I don't think whining will turn the lights off."

"It hurts, okay?! Turn them off Dark!"

"Like to see you try and make me."

"Meanie!

"You're the mean one!"

"…Sis! Tell him to stop!"

Raine sighed under her hood. "Dark… what did you do this time?"

He stretched his hands out, trying to look innocent, but failing miserably. Not that he really cared whether they believed him or not. "I didn't DO anything, Raine. It looks like the power bill bounced back."

"… But the wires have been cut," the oldest pointed out, and Dark shrugged, being the type of guy to come up with answers quickly. It was in his nature, especially when he was… well, that was for later use and Krad even had a book just to keep a record on what the teen did.

"It looks like they fixed it again. Man, those switches were really dusty, you know," he smirked, "What, you don't even like going outside that much anymore, Raine. What's wrong with a bit of light, might I ask?"

"Stop being so immature," she snapped; he had touched a nerve. "Karal, get out from under there immediately and turn the lights off!"

The girl scrambled out, cringing in the light, as she did what she was told. Of course, turning the lights off didn't mean finding the switch and flicking it – this involved the 'magical' powers they were supposed to have. Dark could have laughed out loud at that: they had no idea and no inkling on controlling such a force, and only a few could actually use it. Out of the entire family, he was the only one capable of using it, but they didn't need to know that.

Minutes ticked by and nothing happened, although it was getting considerably brighter in the room, courtesy of Dark's tweaking in the wires with his spell; Raine gave up after a while.

"You have some nerve," she said softly, "doing what you did. It's a pity that those monsters didn't teach you a lesson you sorely need. If you don't start abiding by the rules, I have no choice but to disown you of our family name."

"That's… the punishment?" Dark blinked.

"No--" drawled Karal, "You have to go to that place--"

"…?" Dark raised an eyebrow in question. "What place? Room, kitchen, dining room, I'm assuming the cellar…"

"Yeah, the cellar," Aeka appeared by the doorway, arms crossed as she leaned on the doorframe, "Looks like another monster-thing appeared in there, or something. It's not serious," she added in a whisper, "But if you want, I can make it look like you suffered serious damage so that they believe you got hurt."

"Eh, thanks."

"No problem." Despite the fact that they loved to argue most of the time and had yelling contests occasionally, blood was blood and Aeka and Dark sometimes worked together just for the sake of keeping the family somewhat together.

It was kind of pitiful, really, seeing that they had sunk into the lowest grade of human dignity and Karal wasn't helping anything, with her make-up and clothes and attitude… what they wouldn't do to shut her up once in a while: it would save them from the last resort of jumping out of the third storey window.

"That place---" said annoying girl began in a sing-song voice. Dark winced at the pitch and covered his ears, as did Aeka.

"I'm going! I'm going!" he yelled, trying to sound pathetic as he scampered off, Aeka behind him. Karal was still singing and they pulled out some earplugs, which they kept in stash for the most unbearable cases. Karal couldn't sing, and she would never be able to – that was the fact of life, not that it stopped her.

"Well, see you in a bit," Aeka mouthed and Dark nodded before approaching the little wooden door that led to the so-called cellar. Pushing it light with one finger, it swung open and hit the stone wall with a rather loud thud.

(Wow, this door really does need to be replaced…) whistled the dark-haired teen as he watched said door disintegrate onto the floor. (That is not normal…)

He shrugged it away before locating the switch to the cellar light and turning the lights on, allowing him to see what was inside. Full of cardboard boxes and other useless junk and schoolbooks that had reached their expired date, it was practically smothered in dust - Dark found it almost impossible to think that ANYTHING could actually live there.

But no, something was there, and… he gawked.

"Hey look!" he yelled to no one in particular, "Imps!"

Little green things holding tiny little trident-fork-like-things… that was, if they could describe what an imp looked like. It wasn't that surprising, actually, since there was the occasional strange thing entering the house once in a while.

Then again, the only people who could deal with it was Dark and Aeka – being the violent loud girl she was – so the others usually left it to them. And they kept a hold on certain other creatures to try and 'punish' those who didn't abide to the rules… in other words, Dark.

Walking down and watching the dust as it scattered around – with no way to escape – Dark went to meet said imps, who were chattering among themselves or something. Once he reached the landing, they looked up at him, being quite small and about a third his height.

"Hi there," he greeted them, "Whatcha doin' down here?"

"…" the imps exchanged looks and shrugged, "We live here now."

"Oh?" Dark inclined his head, trying to ignore the dust, "Well, why's that? You like the dust or something now?"

"Nah," snorted another one, poking Dark's ankle lightly with the fork-thing, "But your sister said we could live here, since no one comes in here at all."

"Ri—ght…" he blinked, "… Which one, exactly?"

"Christina."

"Aah… but how can you live here in the first place?"

"We just can. Mind your own business."

"Fine, I don't care. Say… what are you going to do about the door now?"

"We'll fix it… somehow. Just leave already. You're disturbing the dust."

"Alright already. I'm going, I'm going." Not wanting to stand around too long and knowing that imps can be hostile, Dark left, covering his nose so that he didn't sneeze out loud. Once he was back onto dust-free floor, he dragged himself down the hall and knocked on one of the doors, which opened a crack.

---

"You were arguing with them?" Aeka looked skeptical as she messed around with some strange putty stuff and red gel. "Sounds just like something you would do, Dark."

"Well, what did you want me to do?" Dark huffed, arms crossed as he sat on the floor. The two were in Aeka's room, which, besides being absolutely overruled by one too many papers and other ingredients due to her 'special effects' career – it was amazing that she gad been able to find room for both of them to sit down.

"Nothing, but arguing with them seems just a tad immature," she replied off-handedly as she frowned at the skin-coloured putty, "I think this is the right tone… what do you think, Dark?"

"Whatever, just hurry before someone comes or something."

"Right, well, let's see… if you were fighting imps, then it would be more on the legs and ankles… is it okay if I rip these a bit for effect?"

"What?!"

"Hey, how are you supposed to get into a fight with imps and have your clothes still in one piece?"

"But these are mine! If you do that, you have to pay for it!"

"Sure, but stop whining like a girl and let me get this done already."

"…"

---

Rain had made it's second appearance that night, while Dark was lying on his bed completely bored out of his mind. What homework he had was either done or stuffed in the inner depths of his bag to rot in the many years to come, and he wasn't in the mood anyway, after everything that had happened.

"Stupid family… stupid family…" he muttered under his breath, only referring to Karal and Raine. If they hadn't been so… eerie, then he might have thought otherwise. But no, they were the ones over the top, so it was his job to hate them as much as possible.

He wanted to leave the house – who didn't? – but where would he go then, he didn't know. He knew that he couldn't hang around his friend's houses too much, since their parents wouldn't take the option too lightly, and he didn't exactly have a job or the money to rent an apartment or even a single room to live in.

He could live on the streets, of course, but that would just be absurd, and there was no way he was doing that.

Not to mention that he had been suffering from what could only be referred to as hallucinations. No one else had heard that voice he had heard, so he had to be going crazy. Strange though, he didn't feel particularly crazy, so what was up with him? It was a question that would most likely never be answered.

Unless he came face-to-face with the thing/being that owned the creepy voice.

A light knock on his door jerked Dark out of his weird train of thoughts and he fell to the floor. Grumbling, he opened it a crack, since his room was the only one supplied with electricity now – Raine had seen to getting rid of the light in every room, but Dark had turned the lights on in his room anyway. It was Nina, peering back at him through said gap.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Don't you have homework to do or something?"

"Just checking in on you, that's all," came the airy reply. "Can I come in?"

"Why would you want to?" Dark muttered, but allowed her in anyway.

"Well… it's a bit… private, if you know what I mean. Come on, close that door already, you never know when Karal's spying on us." Nina's voice had lowered to a hushed whisper.

Closing the door, Dark sat on his bed while his sister took the seat, which was almost in as bad a shape as the cellar door. She looked outside the single window space which showed the other houses and sighed.

"Well, spit it out already," Dark said impatiently.

"It's about Raine…" Nina began, "I mean, you know that she's a total… well, that she's a bit too into this set religion, but I was wondering if you noticed anything else strange from her? She hasn't been acting right…"

"When was she acting right?" he snorted, arms crossed. "Ever since that time mum and dad left for their 'super belief' whatever, she's been acting all eerie and in control and being a total freak of a--"

"Exactly," she cut him of before he went into a long description of what he thought of their oldest sister. "But… after you and Christina left, she, well, it was only then that she warned us of the monsters. She wanted the two of you to…" she struggled for a moment, "learn the hard way."

"…" Dark was frowning now, "Wait. That attitude and those words… they're the same as…"

"What mother said before she left," Nina nodded, "Something's going on, Dark. I just thought you might want to know…"

"Hn… you don't have to tell me that something's going on," his mind wandered on the voice, "but I know what you mean."

"Right," standing up again, she left the room, "Good night."

"'Night."

The door snapped shut behind her and Dark switched the lights off.

Needless to say, he wasn't in the best of moods that night… and with Krad's condition at the time…

---

It took two days until the blonde was allowed to go back to school, and since he was the type of guy who got attention whether he wanted it or not, Dark had been hassled as to where he had been and what had happened.

Rubbing his eyes, Krad gave his friend a half muttered greeting, "Morning…"

"I'm assuming that your parents didn't want you out until you were completely recovered?" Dark half smiled and then slumped back on his desk, looking bored. "At least now people will just asking about you. What about me?"

"Hmph," taking his own seat, the blonde inclined his head as he watched Dark carefully, instantly noting that something was wrong.

But that would have to wait until they had some time alone, as the teacher entered the classroom. No doubt it was going to be a long, dragging, entirely useless and boring day.

---

"Krad-kun, welcome back!"

"You make it sound like he died or moved out of the country for a few years."

"… Satoshi-kun…"

Disturbed by the appearance of the two younger boys, Krad merely greeted them before turning back to Dark, who was now looked over the entire school grounds and giving the very definition to the word 'zombie'. Rather annoying to watch him that was as well, since Dark was the one who created almost all the noise.

"Dark-kun won't tell us what's going on," Daisuke muttered to the blonde, who had given them a questioning look, "He's been like that since the battle."

Krad nodded, half understanding, before approaching the dark-haired boy. "Dark?"

No answer. "Dark?"

Silence. "Hey, Dark!"

Still nothing. "…"

Krad did the only thing he could do: hit his friend over the head as hard as he could. This resulted to coming close to falling off the roof, but he didn't.

"Owwwww…" whined Dark, looking over his shoulder, "KRAD! What was that for…?"

"You were the one not answering," replied the blonde, glaring at his friend accusingly, "zoning out like that's not like you, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that something is wrong."

Dark pouted, "Well, you didn't have to hit me like that. It HURT."

"Get over it."

"… Oh," for the first time since the past two days, Dark noticed Daisuke and Satoshi, "Hey. Didn't see you guys coming."

"We've been here for the last ten minutes," Satoshi said.

"And you've been really spacing out," added Daisuke, looking concerned.

"Right…" Dark scratched the back of his head in a form of apology, "Sorry?"

"Never mind that," Krad cut in, "We just want to know what's making you so spaced out of late."

"Hm… how should I put this?" the dark-haired teen thought for a moment before counting the options off with his fingers, "Family, voices, religious freaks, imps living in the basement, blood tying all… need I say more?"

"…"

"Voices?" Daisuke asked amidst the silence, while both Krad and Satoshi just stared. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that time after the battle," explained Dark simply, "I think I'm going insane. Say, what's the chance of me moving out of my house and living?"

"Not a very high one," Satoshi replied, "You'd be left out on the streets to rot."

"Nice…"

"So your family's doing it again," Krad had his arms crossed and he was frowning, "is it about us again?"

"I don't think so," Dark blinked, "But it won't be long before we get forced into one of those cult things where you get locked in there forever and you can't escape, and there is no way that I'm going to be doing that."

More silence followed in its wake. Then Satoshi coughed a little to gain everyone's attention and began to speak. "About those monsters we encountered a while back. There isn't much information on them, but it may be a bit too serious to inform the authorities." The authorities were the few adults that dealt with and could deal with the occasional monster/different creature mishap.

"They're that bad?" Daisuke looked shocked. "I know that they were strong, but couldn't they--"

"Too strong."

"But if they keep coming, who's going to deal with it then?" asked Krad, arms crossed. "We just got lucky that time, and if they make more appearances, then we'll have to consider other options."

"That's what I'm trying to figure out at the moment." Satoshi looked annoyed at being disturbed occasionally. He was about to say more, but was cut short when a short boy with messy blonde hair burst through the closed door and had glasses that were too big for him. Panting, he looked up to see whom he had just run across.

"Ah… important meeting… usual classroom…" he panted. Such messages deserved to be shot and buried, never to be used again, but the four boys understood exactly what it meant. Dark was the first one to complain.

"Why do we have to have a meeting now? What's the point, really: I mean, very few people actually have the mind and power to actually use what they have and then that's pretty pointless and all--" He was cut short as Krad hit him over the head. "Ow…"

---

Eighteen years old and the so-called leader of the small group meeting, Melanie, tapped her foot impatiently as the door finally slid open to allow the last five 'members' to enter. Once they were seated – there were only about six or so more people there at the moment – she started off the 'meeting'. This meeting consisted of the few gifted students with magic or magic potential, and, really, there weren't that many people these days that possessed of controlled such a thing.

Either way, even those attending the meeting really couldn't use magic, but it was essential that they know how to deal with it in case the worse could happen. Every school had groups such as these, but magic was fading away in the blood of time and that was a problem.

The few that could use magic to its fullest extent were more in secret than anything, only talking about their gift away from prying eyes and ears. At the moment it was Dark, Krad, Daisuke, Satoshi and Akane Takada, who was currently reading a small book by the window. Any other people in their school that may have had that same position were either in hiding or denial.

"I would like to cover over last meetings topics," Melanie began, flipping open a notebook that she had fished out of her bag, "involving occasional abuse with the abilities you have (which wasn't much) and the mere presence of half-demons scaring you witless. So, what have we gained from this?"

The little nerd with the huge glasses – Kazuhiko or Kazu for short – had finally recovered from running around too much and spoke up, "We've been keeping an eye on the people who abuse their powers, and the half-demons who attend the school haven't done anything as of yet, so what was the point of worrying?"

"We don't know how dangerous they can be," Melanie replied frostily.

Kazu sighed, "Akane-san, can't you make her see sense?" he pleaded softly, not the type of guy to hold arguments for long.

"Kazu has a point, Melanie," cut short from her reading – whatever it was – she looked up, "Just because in the past our… type had a few problems with demons, it doesn't mean that they're really a bad sort. Don't you know that already?"

"Of course I do, but we can't let our guard down."

"That was over a hundred years ago, Mel. Let go of your history notes and forget it already. I mean, isn't one of you best friends and even your boyfriend part demon anyway? I've heard you two arguing about it."

"…"

"Demons who live in our time now have a chance of a normal life, so don't try and make it harder for them."

Being told off by a student four years younger, the leader looked slightly offended and was breathing somewhat heavily, "Very well, fine, next topic for today's meeting is…

Strange monster appearances and how we are to deal with such a cause. Reports have been made and it seems to be getting worse everyday…"

Dark jerked up, a horrible feeling twisting in his stomach.

This was not good, not good at all…

---

Uh… tired is all I can say. Yeesh, I have school next week so I'm sulking over that, so yeah. I'll see what I can do in the next few days…

**Hakudoshi-chan:** okay, I admit that Raine is a creep in many many ways, but as to her being evil… well, that's later into the story. Krad's got some sort of power… but the other's can't place it and the authorities don't know about it, you see, so it's inconclusive. Uh… makeout session? Oh, uh… right… (sweat drop) I don't think it takes a genius to work out that I have no sense of any type of romantic activity, so if you really want it, well… I'll jut leave in those pointless gaps where you can think whatever you want… You'll notice that every story I have put up, there really isn't much indication of pairings… except one. So I think you should understand that that type of writing isn't my forte. But… I'll… try? (laughs at what I just wrote) If you can help, sure, but I can't do it…

**SpinningAvia: **Well, that's why I don't want to use Mousy as a last name. it's not really a name at all, so yeah. What do you think I should use then? … Thanks for the review!

Okay, last thing. After this chapter and one other, I run into a road block. Okay, not exactly. It just means that I haven't been keeping up with my work, and it stinks, so yeah. And updates for ANY of the stories will be slow, so please please PLEASE bear with me, because I can't bear myself. Thank you.


	4. Chapter Four: Self Explanatory

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept. Oh, and all the spelling and grammatical errors you can find. I own them all! … To some extent.

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU. Oh, and me being violent so that Dark ends up hurting himself quite a bit, so yeah.

Okay, this is going to be the last chapter for a while, soI hope you enjoy!

... And the chapter name isa bit strange... I know, I know.

_-_

_"You can't escape the blood that you have, you cannot escape what the future has in store for you._

_You can't keep running away from everything… you will have to face the truth."_

- Raine, oldest of the family.

_"There is only so much that can be said, but not before it is too late._

_We just hope that the right thing is being done now."_

- Emiko Niwa

- Four: Self Explanatory -

"Monster attacks have been getting more frequent, and even though the authorities usually handle them, I've noticed that there have been more and more appearing each day, and they just can't be handled the way they used to."

"Isn't that because your parents are part of this as well?" asked a classmate of Melanie's, looking bored and playing with her plaits in the process. "You get all the information from them first-hand."

"Exactly," nodded the leader, "But the question is: what can be done now? Most people these days don't even know how much danger they're in, and that causes the biggest problem if they get in the way."

"So you're telling us this... why?" a guy asked from the other side of the room.

"We might have to take some accounts into our own hands, that's what I'm telling you," Melanie stated. "If the authorities aren't around to get rid of the danger, we may have to do it ourselves."

"But we can't even use our magic or anything," Kazu piped up, wiping his glasses furiously. "How can we fight these things if we can't even protect ourselves first? It's suicidal, isn't it?"

"I'm sure most of your parents actually taught you some defense of sorts, so if you really have to, just find a way to hold them off to allow people to run away and those who can fight deal with it." She decided after a moment of thought, since what the boy had said was true. "We can't risk too much with this, so really... the problems just seem to be getting bigger and the monsters are apparently getting stronger."

"… How many recorded attacks do you have?" Dark finally asked, trying not to look too worried. The feeling in his stomach wasn't settling and he was in the mood to run away screaming, if he'd been allowed. Melanie flipped the pages over, not even glancing up at the dark-haired teen.

"Well, for the past week, the number of frequent attacks has come to… five hard hit-and-run ones, and about three stand-offs, kill-or-be-killed."

"But isn't that dangerous, doing these sorts of things on our own," murmured Akane, as she continued to read, "I would say leave it to the authorities, but if the attacks are getting more frequent…"

"It's a risk to everyone," finished Daisuke, knowing what she meant, while Melanie merely looked confused. "Magical and non-magical, these monsters may be too powerful for us. It's a risk to our own safety as well as anyone else's."

"True, but I'm sure all together we can deal with it if we have to!"

"I wouldn't put consent to that, though," Satoshi spoke up, looking over at her with a neutral stare, "Because none of us-" he jabbed Dark in the stomach to keep him quiet "-has actually dealt with monsters of any sort, and if the authorities have been having a hard time, then what is the chance of ourselves dealing with it without risk of death?"

"…" lost of words, Melanie huffed and closed the notebook, "Meeting's over. Don't do anything stupid, okay?" She got a muffled murmur from the group as a reply as they began to leave the classroom, since the bell was going to ring any moment for sure.

"I think you got her too hard, Satoshi-kun," Daisuke whispered as they filed out of the room.

"Maybe so, but she has to learn that not everyone can just deal with it," replied the blue-haired boy calmly, "And would you like others knowing that you can actually use the bases of magic? The authorities wouldn't be happy."

"I think they're trying to squash the magic out of us," suggested Krad, only speaking since the meeting was over and most people were too busy with other things than what groups of four were saying, "But if they don't find a way to close these happenings soon, then there may be no other choice. What do you think, Dark?"

"Me?" Dark pointed at himself, "Well, first, I'd say-"

"Dark? I need a word with you."

"Huh?" he turned around with a large question mark hovering over his head like mist. He then noticed it was Melanie. "Fine, fine. Whatever, but you'll have to make it quick." He waved to the others for them to go ahead and it wasn't long before the two were alone. Dark crossed his arms and regarded the older girl for a moment, "So… what did you want to talk about?"

"About the monster attacks of course." The boy stiffened.

"What about them?" he asked cautiously.

"Well, there's been a run-in with a…" Melanie flipped open a piece of paper that she had pulled out of her pocket, "'large creature with pure black plumage', as they say. I want you to deal with it."

"What! Why me!"

"Because…" she drawled out, shoving the paper in his hand, "You don't do your work. The teachers aren't very pleased with you, and I thought, since you don't do anything, that you could handle it. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

Dark looked baffled, "But…"

"Don't be late for class now!" Melanie called, already making her way down the hall as the school bell rang out dully over the grounds and building. The dark-haired teen was still a bit slow on the uptake before finally taking a look at the paper that had been forcefully given to him.

…

He sighed and shoved the paper in his pocket, not really wanting to think about the… whatever it was that Melanie had left him to deal with. He was getting delusional enough with voices speaking with him, and it wasn't exactly fun with family being really, really evil. Of course, they were always evil, so that didn't effect him as much. He was the only one of the family actually going to this particular school, since everyone else went to an all-girls school, so at least they didn't bug him during the day.

Then he noticed he was late for class.

Swearing under his breath, Dark sprinted down the corridor. The teacher was going to kill him, the teacher was going to kill him…

-

"Dark-kun? Are you alright?"

"I think just looking at his face gives you the answer."

"Uh…"

Krad sighed as the three watched Dark as he went back into a sort of zombie mode and waved a hand in front of his friend's face. "Hello? Anyone in there at the moment?" Silence was the only reply he got. "…"

"Maybe we should just leave him alone," suggested Daisuke.

"We've been leaving him alone for the past two days," reminded Satoshi, "And when Dark's quiet, it seems like the whole world is going to collapse under the weight. That or Dark's been possessed."

"I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to try and possess Dark," the blonde decided out loud, "Since he really is useless, and stupid, and doesn't even pay attention in class…"

"Is that why he's zoning out now?"

"Anyone who wanted to possess him would have to be as stupid as him. Or more so."

"Hey! I can't believe you're saying that behind my back!" snapping out of zombie mode, Dark glared at Satoshi, who had made the last statement. "And why does everyone I meet call me stupid!"

"Because you are," suggested Krad.

"Krad! I believe you said that just now!"

"Well, I just did. Get over it already, Dark."

"…" Dark pouted.

"So, what's going on?"

"I dunno!" the dark-haired teen waved his hands in the air wildly, trying to emphasize his point, "With all this crap going on I don't know what to think! And I thought having problems with family was bad enough!"

"I… see…" Satoshi muttered, while Krad remained silent, taking in what his friend had just said.

Daisuke turned to the blue-haired boy, "Satoshi-kun?"

"What Dark's trying to say is; everything has built up to the point where he will have a mental breakdown. Sooner or later, anyway."

"Hey! I wasn't going to say that!"

"What, that you are going insane? You said that just earlier today."

"But that doesn't mean I want to go insane!"

"Who said that you weren't already?"

"Shut up, Creep!"

"Make me."

"Why you-" Dark had to be forcefully restraint by Krad while Daisuke tried to keep Satoshi quiet before an all-out brawl was assured. The two had never really gotten along well, and seemed to have a constant battle in their hands that the other two boys couldn't get rid of. Despite being highly amusing, especially when there was nothing to do, it was also dangerous and the little line between friendship and hatred was forever quivering.

The redhead smiled nervously, while Dark remained tightly restrained, "Uh, anyway, what are we going to do about these monster attacks anyway? If what was said was right, what _are_ we supposed to do?"

"Fight or die, that seems to be the only two options," Krad said, looking over his shoulder.

"… What would my parents say about that…"

"A lot, that's for sure," giving up on trying to rip Satoshi's throat out – or at least hurting him badly – Dark smirked, "You are an only child, Dai-chan. But as for my family… I'm sure Raine and Karal wouldn't have any complaints with me being eaten by a monster."

"Dark-kun, do you really think they wouldn't care?"

"You don't know how those two really are. Karal doesn't even leave the house unless she's wearing all black sometimes! Do you know how creepy that is! It's even worse than the Creep right there!" he pointed at Satoshi to prove his point. The blue-haired boy raised an eyebrow but didn't bother to comment.

"Maybe that's just the way they are," suggested Daisuke gently. "I'm sure that they care for you…"

"But they would never notice it until the day you were all rotting away," finished Satoshi.

"Watch it-" Dark started. Krad sighed. It was definitely going to be a long, long day…

-

By the time the school bell rang to commence the day, most – if not all – the students were snoring on their desks, unable to process anymore information their teachers tried to cram into their brain. Since this was the case, most people fell off their seats or hit their heads on the wooden desks as the loud ringing brought them back to some form of reality, which involved homework, homework, and, of course, more homework. Nothing fun about that.

Krad stood over Dark's head, who was still snoring, completely oblivious to the end of the school day. Poking his friend, he got a reaction that was just Dark grunting in annoyance. The blonde stood there, contemplating his options – poke him even harder, kick him off his seat, throw him out the window… - when the dark-haired teen woke up on his own, blinking owlishly.

"Wha-" he grumbled, "No' now…"

"School's ended," Krad pointed out. This seemed to wake Dark up properly as he rubbed his eyes and sat up properly.

"Grea'. Then I 'ave 'o go 'ome," he muttered, still not forming the words correctly, but neither one of them cared, as the blonde had to forcefully pry Dark out of his seat and drag him down to the footlockers. By this time there was barely anyone there, so at least they got some peace and quiet, even if Dark was currently banging his head on the wall. Krad crossed his arms and frowned: "Care to explain why you're doing that? Family or not, I've never seen you so desperate to get into a concussion."

"Let's just say that life is getting worse, then," Dark suggested, pulling on his shoes while still banging his head on one of the unoccupied lockers. "Ow." –bang- "Ow." –bang- "Ow."

The blonde grabbed his wrist and wrenched him away from any solid objects: "If you do end up knocking yourself out, I'm going to leave you there to rot, you know."

"You can be so mean sometimes…" was the only thing Dark said as he rubbed his head, "Those things are HARD."

"Oh, and you only worked that out now when you were banging your head against it." Krad snorted.

"Of course."

"… idiot."

"You say something?"

"No."

"Say," as the two made their way home, Dark suddenly remembered something that hadn't occurred to him, "Are your parents still mad at me for getting you injured?"

"You know how serious they are," replied Krad, not really in the mood to do much but get home and go to bed, "But the rest of the family don't seem to care too much. As far as they're concerned, as long as I'm still alive the next day, there's really nothing to worry about."

"Oh. Well, at least they care about you… somewhat."

"Like the time they pushed me off that cliff to see if I could fly? Yeah, they really cared about my well-being. The parents weren't too happy about that, though."

"Hey, I remember that time! You managed to just miss Karal's head that day. Pity, it would have killed her if you'd hit…"

"Dark, you can be so weird sometimes. And I ended up landing on you, anyway, and you're not dead are you?"

"Well…" Dark tapped a fist on his head, "I don't think so, but it could just be me with a really thick skull."

"I wouldn't question that theory."

"Hey, that's not very nice."

"Who ever said that I was nice?" The two stopped their conversation by the interruption of shrieking and loud cursing as people ran past them, looking panicked. Krad sighed as he watched the situation. "Looks like monsters are making day appearances now."

"Wonder why everyone has to scream that high-pitched though," muttered Dark as he plugged his ears for a moment until the streets were cleared off properly.

"Hey, you two!" yelled a man in a police car, "Clear off already!"

He didn't even wait to see whether the two teens had decided to run or not as he sped away. Krad could only sigh and then scanned the scenery for a moment before talking to Dark.

"The authorities don't seem to be around either," he said, "I guess this is what she was going on about this morning. Not to mention that if we leave it now it's bound to just create more havoc."

"So true. So true," Dark agreed readily. "Now, where could it be…" He was cut short as said monster hit him from behind, knocking him face-first on the concrete. He rubbed his nose, which was beginning to bleed and tried to staunch the flow with a tissue that had come out of nowhere. "That… hurt."

"Oh, really now?" Krad asked sarcastically, as he watched the shadow of whatever-it-was as it swept across the sky. "You are always stating what is BEYOND obvious, so I won't comment on that. But as for flying monsters…"

"We can't hit it from here," finished Dark, "So, what do you propose we do? It has the advantage, we don't."

"Shoot it from the sky?" asked the blonde, "Of course, if we miss, we're bound to blow up a building or two."

"Hey, that sounds like fun! And not very Krad-like either," the teen added as an afterthought. "You were never the one to mention blowing up buildings." They both ducked as the thing swept past them again. "Not that that's a bad idea. You try first."

"Why me?"

"Because my aim is, and always will be, the worst thing in the history of mankind and any other kind during my life here. Even you've said it sucks."

"Right, whatever. You just don't want to get blamed." The blonde sighed as he held up his right hand and began to gather energy. "Just shout if you see anyone's approaching. I'd rather they don't see this."

"Aye aye, captain!" Dark saluted as he watched the thing soaring over them yet again. "Do you think it's getting ready to dive down again?"

"If it hit it right, it won't be," muttered Krad, before sending the shot off. It had the profound effect of a missile being shot out of a cannon and the blonde was knocked off balance for a moment. Dark watched as the beam of light shot up and hit the black thing and then there was a moment of grave silence.

"And so, we must part with the monster that tried to hurt us all," the dark-haired teen said, with that air of a funeral hanging around him.

"Dark, stop being so stupid-" the blonde started in reprimand, but stopped as Dark was knocked to the ground the second time in the last five minutes by the black monster. "… I don't think it's dead, somehow."

"Says you," groaned Dark as he pushed the creature off him and then looked closer for inspection. "Hey, I think this is the thing Melanie was talking about!"

"What?"

"Oh, it was after the meeting, she was going on about some monster that was annoying people… but," Dark fished out the piece of paper from his pocket and opened it, "Hm… this thing really wasn't doing anything to annoy anyone, so why…"

"Kyu?"

"Huh?" he looked up and jumped back as he saw the big black thing change in a puff of smoke into an adorable little bunny/rabbit looking creature. "Hey, I want it! I want it!"

"Dark…" Krad started, as his friend hugged the confused rabbit. "You do know that that was the monster that I just hit less than two minutes ago. And that's the one that's been causing quite a lot of chaos as well."

"I know, but he really is cute!" Dark replied, "Come on, I'm the one who'll take care of him, not you. So stop worrying already! Come on, you know he's cute!" The rabbit seemed to have recovered and seemed content to be with the dark-haired teen, and the blonde sighed.

"Fine, whatever. It's your funeral if it kills you."

"Aw… lighten up already, Krad!"

"Let's just go home."

"Kyu!"

-

"Oniisan? What is it?" Christina asked as she poked her head into Dark's bedroom, pushing her glasses up in the process. The bunny was currently bouncing on his bed while Dark sat by his desk, looking agitated – most likely from the amount of homework that had piled up since he was too lazy to do it every now and then.

"Oh, I dunno. Something that's a cross from a rabbit and a monster? Beats me, but I like him."

"Kyaa! He's so cute! Can I pet him?"

Dark shrugged in reply, aware of the girl's love of animals, "Sure, go ahead. You, unlike some others -cough-Karal-cough, have some respect to living creatures." He watched from his seat as she approached the still bouncing creature, which seemed to be having the time of his life. He stopped when he noticed Christina.

"Kyu?" the rabbit looked up as the young girl approached him, "Kyu?"

"Hi!" chirped Christina, holding up a hand in a sign of peace, "My name's Christina! What's your name?"

"Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!" the rabbit seemed to smile before jumping up and down again in some form of reply. Christina inclined her head for a moment, looking somewhat confused and then spoke up.

"Hm? Oniisan," she turned to face Dark, "He says his name's With."

"Really? Well, I can't talk to him, can I?" Dark didn't seem surprised that his own sister could talk to strange animals, "But With isn't that bad a name, huh?"

"Kyu!"

"Well, he agrees…"

"Then it's settled! Oh yeah, did you see the other's faces when they saw me with it! It was beyond hilarious!"

"… Dark-san, you can be so evil sometimes… teasing your own family…"

"Well, that's me."

"Kyu!"

-

Yes, I just HAD to intorduce With/Wiz so yeah, that's why. I can't help but feel sorry for these people, though...

**Hakudoshi-chan:** well, here's the update, so yeah. Hope you enjoyed it, and maybe I will put some romance in it, if I can manage...

**neko-nya:** little imps don't have to be evil, and maybe I'll put in some gnomes as well... ? Not a bad idea, actually. Either that or you have a monster under your bed that likes to eat stuff. Mwhahahaha!

**SpinningAvia:** Coincedences are definately scary. I don't know why I ended up using the name Raine, but I did. Really not much else to say but thanks for reviewing!

**SoralovesRiku: **thanks! I guess I could use it as a last name, so yeah. And I may try romance, but it's not really one of my forts. So yeah, that's why I usually avoid the topic.

Okay, I'm a bit hyped up, but that's not the point. Glad you liked the story up to here and I'll TRY to do an update. But since I am working on other stories, and school... yeah. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed and to anyone else out there that at least tries to read it! Thank you all! (hands out plushies and chocolates out of sheer kindness and slight insanity) I wonder if there's such thing as a Krad plushie...?

And one question, just for the sake of it: Should Karal try and get a boyfriend in one of the chapters? I know it's supposed to be more focused on Dark and stuff, but it would be insanely fun to have a part with this crazy girls attempts to get herself a boyfriend. Should I do it though?

Anyway, thanks again!


	5. Chapter Five: Some things just don't hav

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept. Oh, and all the spelling and grammatical errors you can find. I own them all! … To some extent. 

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU. Oh, and me being violent so that Dark ends up hurting himself quite a bit, so yeah.

... Right.

_

* * *

_

_"There is only so much that can be said, but not before it is too late._

_We just hope that the right thing is being done now."_

Emiko Niwa

_"Onii-san? If there was another path to life, would you take it? Would it be right to take the risk?_

_… What is it that we are looking for? Dark-san?"_

Christina

- Five: Some things just don't have to make sense -

Aeka was fuming as she stomped around the hallways for no clear reason. It was obvious she was in a bad mood but why was unknown and so were all the little details that would have made it make more sense. It didn't take a genius to work out that what had just been said made no sense whatsoever.

After a while of stomping and silent cursing under her breath – which meant she was in a REALLY bad mood, since she never swore – she arrived at Dark's bedroom door and knocked on it lightly. She had learnt enough not to break down doors and now wasn't the time to do that.

"… What?" asked Dark from the other side of the room. "Go 'way, busy."

"Kyu!" agreed Dark's… pet. Sometimes she had to wonder what it really was. Since the boy wasn't going to say anything, that really didn't help much.

"When was the last time you were 'busy'?" she snapped impatiently, "Sitting in bed and snoring your head off, that's what it was!" It was also a fact that she coming close to a mental breakdown.

There was incoherent grumbling and then Dark managed to say something that actually DID make sense, "Fine, come in, if that's what you want."

Satisfied, Aeka turned the knob and entered, only to notice that Dark was actually surrounded by a pile of homework sheets that had half done notes scrawled on it. Pens had been thrown around as well, she noted, navigating past the chaos before her. She looked over to her brother.

Well, if he'd been doing homework he wasn't doing it now, she thought to herself, since Dark was sitting on his chair and playing his gameboy, looking like he was deep in concentration as he tapped the buttons as fast as he could.

"Dammit! Not again! You're supposed to run away from the stupid flames!" he yelled in between intervals. "Stupid gloves, like that actually helps as well… makes it close to impossible and those fireballs hurt…"

"Playing again?" Aeka said lightly, taking a seat on his bed, "For a moment I thought you were actually doing homework. That would be a new one."

"Hey! I despise that!" replied Dark without looking up, "Damn bats are starting to annoy me as well. Why won't they die already!"

"Dark, I need to talk to you about Raine," the girl finally burst out. Dark jerked his head up for a moment, looking surprised, one of his fingers in mid-hit. Looked like he was about to kill something as well.

"Really? What did she do this time?" he asked. "I mean, if she's beginning to believe in human sacrifices and blood then I'm outta here."

"Not quite," Aeka said through clenched teeth. How could her own brother be so dense at times? It was really getting annoying, and he was older than her. Surely that meant he had a bigger brain and picture of the situation, right? By the current situation, it seemed impossible to believe. Okay, Dark was a pretty stupid guy at times. That was siblings for you.

"Oh, well then, proceed," Dark shrugged the remark off and turned back to the small screen, "… Damn! He died again! That's what I get for getting distracted… I really need a lock on that door…"

"That, and a brain," came the testy reply.

The violet-haired boy switched the gameboy off and sat back, looking calm, "Okay, I'm going to listen. So, what do you think about Raine?"

"Her way of thinking is getting really weird…" she started, "I think there's something going on. I don't know what, but Nina is thinking the same thing, and I'm worried to what is going to happen to the family. Especially with Christina. She's still really young."

"I know what you mean. She's gone from freak to psychopath, really," agreed Dark lightly, "Do you think she's being possessed? The Creep told me about it once; sounds like 'great fun'." He frowned and Aeka looked surprised.

"Wow, you do pay attention to what happens around you," she joked all of a sudden, "And I thought all you thought about was yourself and that guy… Krad, was it?"

"Hey, I'm not that shallow! And Krad and I are just friends."

She smiled, "Of course, Dark. Well, you do know Nina is… like that, so what's the point of denying it?"

"I'm not denying anything!"

"Yeah." Aeka was still smiling as she left the room, "Well, at least you know. I think we have to think about this more carefully, but as long as you're actually aware, that's all I need to know." She paused to pet With on the head, "Well, later Dark."

When she was gone, Dark stared after her, confused. "Well, I can't believe she thought of bringing that out. Must be pretty bad…"

After that, of course, he went back to playing his gameboy, his one comment being…

"If you're so great, you talking tree, why don't you just TELL me where the lake is next time, huh!"

-

The night wasn't any different from the day and Dark was just lying there. Not sleeping, not actually thinking of anything in particular, just… lying there. That and staring up at the blank ceiling. Maybe he was just really bored, or he was losing his mind, but something was really stirring. Something was just… there. He really couldn't identify it or locate it, since it just seemed to be hovering around him, coming and going. It was unnerving, of course.

"Kyu?" With stirred slightly and the violet-haired boy stroked the one-time demon thingy. He really needed to talk to the others, to see if the creature really was dangerous. He wasn't dangerous, and loved people and strawberries, as far as he was concerned. It was strange to think With as dangerous at all. "Kyu…"

Oh well, he was really spacing out too much. What had happened to the times where he could just argue and hang out with his friends? Okay, it was just yesterday, but it still felt like an eternity. Now that was SAD.

Wow… the ceiling had so many cracks etched in it. Wondering if the floor above would one day collapse on them, Dark began to count how many cracks there were. He stopped then he heard a rustling noise. He concentrated on the sound for a moment, but it was gone. He shrugged it off – probably just his imagination. It tended to play a lot of tricks on him for some reason. It didn't make much sense, but it was logical enough. Or not. Maybe that was why it made so much sense.

The violet-haired boy decided to count sheep – anything to get him to fall asleep. Really, sheep weren't that dangerous, unless they were killer sheep or something… okay, how about rabbits? Nah… With was already there, and he didn't want to be attacked at night – of be paranoid about it. What else could he count? Clouds? Stars? Carrots? Onions? How many strands of hair did he have?

Right, he had some really bad ideas there and his imagination was nowhere to be found. Great.

…

…

…

Pretty white feathers.

…

Something about it seemed familiar, but he couldn't really place it. It reminded him of something or something… white, white…

Oh, right.

Krad.

Wait… did he like his friend that much? Hm… possible. But it was best not to think about it. Something creepy was going on and Raine would probably sacrifice him on the spot if she found out something like that. Not like he'd actually had any sort of girlfriend before. There was that weird girl – Risa something – but she was just trying too hard and she was three years younger than him. Her twin was more decent, but she seemed to hate him for no reason. He really honestly didn't know why this was so. Had he done something to her? Not that he could recall…

Unless it was that time he managed to convince the other three to play a prank on the girls during a camping trip. Hm…

He sighed, deciding to talk to the others the next day about Raine and With. It seemed right for them to know, unless the blonde's parents killed him first.

He pushed himself up to take a look at his clock.

Twelve midnight.

Damn. He was going to be up late tomorrow, that was for sure.

-

"Late again?"

"Hey, like I said, it wasn't my fault!" Dark protested.

"That's what you always say, Dark. It doesn't work more than once. And what was that about your pet bunny eating your homework?" Krad smirked as his friend fumed indignantly. Said bunny merely 'kyu'-ed in question.

"Well, he did!"

"Are you sure you didn't flush it down the toilet 'accidentally-on-purpose'?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"And lying won't make any difference either."

"Kraaa-d!"

Since they were on the roof – it was lunch after all – Daisuke opened the door and entered, smiling happily, as per usual. "Dark-kun, Krad-kun, hell-" He stopped when he saw the two and Satoshi appeared next to him, pushing his glasses up in the process.

"What's wrong with those two today? Did someone put them on a new set of drugs?" he asked.

"Satoshi-kun…"

The two were on the floor, Dark grappling with Krad, who just looked highly amused by it all. That and the blonde trying not to get choked in the process, since it seemed that Dark wasn't in a good mood. Satoshi pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and commented lightly:

"I want to see those two kill each other."

Daisuke sweat dropped, "Satoshi-kun, have you been reading those horror-related books again? I don't think it's right to want to kill them…"

"Only because Dark's an idiot. Otherwise I don't care."

"…"

After a while Krad seemed to get annoyed as well and he finally managed to pry Dark off of him. "I'm not family. Go maim someone else."

The boy pouted before going back to eating like nothing had happened. He then looked up at the two younger boys, "So, why're you late?" Satoshi rolled his eyes at the question.

"We've been here for the last ten minutes. You were just so preoccupied with Krad to notice us at all."

"And who's this?" Daisuke added, not noticing that his friend's last statement was probably implying something else in the older boy's relationship and even if he did, he didn't seem to care. Instead, he was peering intently at Dark's rabbit, who was currently eating strawberries for the sake of it. And he was enjoying it. "Where'd you get him, Dark-kun?"

"Huh? Oh, With's a monster."

"Really?" the redhead stared at the bunny, "Who would have thought?"

"Not you, that's for sure."

"Hey…"

"Like you're one to talk," commented Satoshi lightly as he also took a look at With, "So you're now living with monsters."

"No. I only have With in that house… and a couple of imps. That's all!" Dark said indignantly, like everything was fine. In the end it was – since trouble seemed to follow them and Dark in particular – but it still didn't stop the underlining hostility that the two boys seemed to have for no apparent reason.

"You're still living with monsters."

"Shut up, you!"

"Guys," Daisuke sighed, "Why are they always fighting…"

"Must be a genetic thing that clicked in their heads," muttered Krad, "That and the fact that Dark always seems to attract trouble, no matter how hard he tried not to… Unless he likes the trouble."

"Ah…"

"Kyu!" With looked up and Daisuke smiled. "Hi there!"

"Kyu kyu kyu!" the hyper-active bunny hopped around excitedly before jumping on the redhead's shoulder and then on Dark's head, who had been arguing with Satoshi. Seemingly he was heavier than they thought and the boy yelped in surprise. "WITH!"

"Weird…"

"You're telling me."

As lunch finally came to a close, the argument that Dark and Satoshi had – 'One day ONE of you will end up on the streets, trust me' – really never came to a conclusion. The only useful part of the conversation that they had revolved around Raine's strange actions.

"Honestly, I do think she's been possessed by a demon or something. And no one ever came to the conclusion to that creepy voice, and I'm not talking about That Creep over there!"

Krad frowned as they made their way down: something really was going on, but what could they do about it? Maybe they would have to talk to someone with a larger amount of knowledge in that area.

And there was only one person he knew of.

-

"Hello… oh, Hikari-san?" Akane looked up, surprised. Both her parents owned a small convenience store and sine they were gone – reasons unknown – she was the only one there. One of the workers looked up at the blonde but then looked back down again. "Is something the matter?" The two rarely spoke – since it was Daisuke and Satoshi who conversed with her the most – but there were on pretty neutral terms and Akane was always willing to help on the sidelines. That was her forte.

"I need to talk to you… privately." The blonde said in a low voice. Understanding, the girl got up from her seat behind the cash register.

"Celes, can you take over for a minute?" she asked the obviously older girl, who nodded.

"Just don't take too long. You're parents won't be happy."

"I know." Akane nodded over to Krad. "Come on, then." She led him to the back of the shop and opened the 'staff only' door. The whole Takada family actually lived above the store, but since it was small… they had another house, where Akane usually kept to herself. The stairs looked a bit too rickety for its own good, but once they reached a proper landing, the place looked more stable and homely, if not cluttered.

"So, what is it?"

The blonde gave her a calculated glance, "Have you spoken to the spirits lately?" Although she talked more with the two younger boys, Akane had never talked about her abilities so Krad was the only one who seemed to know. But as soon as he had asked that question, she became alert.

"No. Why is that you ask?"

"I was… just wondering if you could contact a particular spirit. Unless it's too hard for you…"

Akane smiled slightly, "Oh, no. That's no problem. So, who do you want to contact?"

Krad didn't need to think to answer, "Who I want to contact is-"

-

As usual, the house was in complete chaos and Dark had locked himself in his room. With was just lying on his pillow, snoring, and the boy was… well, he was having a fun time yelling at the gameboy in his hands.

"Dammit! That's the last time I run into YOU!" he bellowed. Someone slammed a fist against his door.

"Dark! Shut up!" roared Aeka.

"No, you shut up!" he retorted.

"WHY YOU-"

Dark stopped playing as he noticed his desk calender lying around, in the middle of his homework papers. Picking it up, he read what date it was tomorrow.

"Oh…"

"DARK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!"

"WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH!"

"YOU BETTER BE DOING HOMEWORK OR I'M GONNA KILL YOU! WE GET CALLS FROM THE SCHOOL, YOU KNOW!"

"HEY! WHAT I DO IS MY OWN BUSINESS!"

"WHAT! JUST DO YOUR HOMEWORK ALREADY!"

He heard his sister stomp off and shook his head. 'She must be in a really bad mood to do something like that.' He then turned back to the calender, "But what should I do about this…" he mused out loud.

Outside, birds sang melodiously.

* * *

Okay, it's brief, but yeah. Hope you enjoyed it.

**Hakudoshi-chan:** It's not my fault that I can't write romance! Waaaaaaah... Anyway, I'm going to do my best, but no assurances with that. Glad you liked the chap, though.

**neko-nya:** see! I did update... in the end. And Krad just has really, really good aim, so yeah. You might want to watch out, though, I think he might have hit a plane in the process...

Oh, and the first part with Dark playing with games, well, let's just say that I was playing the Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and I didn't know where Eyeglass lake was. Then my brother got annoyed and had to show me. Then I got angry at the talking tree. So yeah, that was just me using Dark to get even with the talking tree in the game. If anything, I would have killed it...


	6. Chapter Six: What's The Reason?

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eeire concept.

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU.

Uh… stuff kinda… happens. Oh, and Dark's family surname is now going to be Belcourt. Don't ask why, but I couldn't think of anything better and I didn't make this up. Thanks for the suggestion, SoralovesRiku! Actually, I don't know if you still read this… but thank you! It won't be mentioned that much anyway, but it reall is useful… and now I don't have to mumble 'what the hell are they going to yell at him if they don't like him…' XO Enjoy!

* * *

"_Onii-san? If there was another path to life, would you take it? Would it be right to take the risk?_

… _What is it that we are looking for? Dark-san?"_

Christina

"_If you know what's right, then that's all you need. Sometimes that's all that's necessary, but… oh, you know what I mean."_

Nina

000 Six: What's The Reason? 000

"Krad, you look terrible!"

"Uh-huh. Found anything else really amazingly surprising about me this morning?"

"Well, actually…"

The blonde rolled his eyes as Dark began to rattle off as many differences he could like it was some sort of game. He guessed in a way it was, but he really wasn't in the mood to say too much as to why he looked… well, he'd been up all night, so it was only natural. There was a similarity to that and someone else who had only had nine hours of sleep for the past two days… he was going to look like that sooner or later at this rate.

Not to mention he couldn't tell the other boy as to why he was in such a state – the truth would probably be too much for Dark's non-existent brain – and he yawned; okay, he was really too tired for his own good.

"—as well as—"

Krad turned his head slightly to look at the violet-haired boy and glared at him, "You're talking too much again."

"Oh? I am?" Dark blinked.

"… Ugh." The walk to school was going to be plain hell: but it wasn't because he hated Dark talking that much. It was just that… that… well, the noise wasn't good for his brain so early in the morning, so no talk would be good. Not that his friend would be able to understand that; talking was his life and if he didn't talk he would probably end up dying… or something.

"Whoa, are you alright, Krad?" Dark seemed to have finally noticed that the thing wrong with Krad was affecting the blonde's attitude and peered into his friend's eyes. "Are you sick or something?" He then stood right in front of the blonde to stop him from proceeding.

"Move out of the way," grumbled Krad, trying to step to the side, but Dark refused to budge, keeping up with every sidestep granted.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong," he said seriously, which was quite new to him and all, but since he was worried…

"What would you say if I told you I was taking drugs?"

"WHAT!"

Krad snorted at this and pushed the surprised-looking Dark out of the way and continued to walk, "Well, I'm not, so that's all you need to know." He then noticed that the violet-haired boy wasn't following him and he sighed, walked back, and grabbed his friend by the wrist and proceeded in dragging him into the school building.

"Hikari-san, what's wrong with him?" Krad turned in time to see Akane approach them, looking wary at the sight of an extremely surprised Dark. Maybe it was because it was highly comical that she'd decided to slow down to talk them. Or she was just late for class already so it didn't matter how much later she was. "Did his face freeze like that?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," the blonde replied coolly, "But I thought he'd die from falling down the stairs too many times. Guess I was wrong."

This seemed to snap Dark out of his trance and he glared at the person who was dragging him, "What's wrong with you today! Yeesh!"

Seeing that the other teen was not in any better mood, Akane rolled her eyes slightly before entering the building and then bolting. Despite the fact that Dark had him by the shirt collar and was shaking him like a rag doll, Krad could only blink at how fast she'd been able to bolt in the first place.

"That was too fast…"

"What? Are you going out with her?"

"And where the hell did you get that idea from?" the blonde snorted, "She's just helping me with a spirit case."

"Wha-! How come I wasn't informed!"

"Dark, Krad, morning," Melanie popped out of nowhere and smiled at the two boys in a rather stragely-happy-kinda-scary-way. "Did you have a good weekend then? Nothing bad happened, right? I mean, no attacks or anything?"

"No. Why?" Dark raised an eyebrow in question.

"Oh, that's right. What happened with that monster attack I informed you about?"

"Krad shot it out of the sky. What else?"

Her eyes widened, "What?"

"Shot it out with a gun," the blonde lied smoothly, "can you believe that they allow those things without a permit these days?"

Melanie frowned at them, thinking for a moment, "Oh… well then… ahem… in that case…"

"Don't tell me it's another attack," groaned Dark out loud, finally letting go of Krad's shirt collar, seeing that the blonde was beginning to have a hard time actually breathing. "Sorry."

"No!" she snapped, swinging her book bag in his direction, "You're going to be late for class! Hustle! Hustle!"

Avoiding her rather pointless attack, the two boys ran down the hall before she was able to work out what had just happened. Krad was still coughing and Dark had to pat him on the back for a moment, only to be hit on the head by said blonde. With an indignant yelp, he glared at the other.

"What was that for!"

"What was with you going all crazy and shaking me by the collar?" retorted the blonde. The violet-haired boy was silent at this, but just ended up shrugging in the end.

"Maybe it was the chocolate pancakes from this morning," he suggested.

"… That would explain a lot." Actually it really didn't. Dark was slightly off it anyway, all the time.

"Anyway, Melanie seemed… just a bit too out of it. Maybe she's coming down to a mental breakdown or something," Dark mused as they walked down the corridors; thankfully they were all closed so the teachers couldn't yell at them for being late. "I haven't seen her so…"

"Stressed?" offered Krad.

"Yeah! That's the one!" Dark was so caught up in his own thoughts – or whatever they were – that he didn't notice the door next to them slide open and the teacher glaring down at them. Krad sighed.

They were really in for it now.

… Five minutes later, after the screaming had finally come to a halt…

"Ow…" Dark rubbed the back of his head, where the teacher had hit him with a ruler, "Are they allowed to do that to students! Physical abuse isn't supposed to be allowed, right!"

"Who knows," Krad shrugged and looked out the window on the wall opposite them, "It was literally your fault that the teacher did that anyway. I mean, did you really expect to get away with talking back to him?"

"I've done it before."

"Only when you did it from yelling distance, from what I recall. Not to mention you got called to the principal's office after that. You're voice is really recognizable."

"Hmph."

"What? Is it really that painful?"

"Yep."

"Too bad. You'll get over it."

The violet-haired teen pouted at this, but seeing that his friend was unfazed by the display, he dropped the whole act and sighed. Really, standing around the corridors carrying buckets of water wasn't supposed to be good for their backs, right? He wasn't too sure anymore.

"Do they even use this water after we're done?"

"I don't really care."

"Krad, you're so mean… can't you be at least a BIT more considerate."

"Sorry, it's not on my to-do list today."

"Pft."

Dark returned to his sulking, casting sullen glances at his friends every-so-often, who chose to ignore him all the while. Now the violet-haired boy was really confused. He hadn't seen Krad this cold… ever. And when he meant ever, he really did mean EVER. Not even their first meeting was this… frosty. A sudden image of Frosty the Snowman popped into Dark's head for no real reason.

While he was considering on whether he should try to make small talk, or something similar, Krad suddenly dropped both buckets and went over to the window.

"Krad?"

"Sh," the blonde commanded softly, waving a hand to indicate the other to follow his example. "Look at this."

Setting the buckets down, Dark walked over to the window and poked his head out, only to have Krad shove it roughly down again. "Ow! What the hell was that--" he was cut short as a hand covered his mouth, so now he was making muffled sounds. Normal circumstances would have involved Dark biting Krad's hand so that he could breath again (yes, through his mouth) but the blonde removed it as fast as he'd placed it and then muttered under his breath.

"Look up slowly. Try not to catch their attention."

"Huh?" Dark did what he was told, about to make an annoyed comment, only for his eyes to widen slightly and he gaped, lost for words.

"I thought so. So what do we do?" Krad asked, indifferent now.

"Wha-wha-wha-wha-"

"Trust me. If I knew I'd tell you. There're not the monsters we fought weeks back, so I can't say if they're more dangerous. They could be the biggest threat around, though. You never know."

Shapeless shadows seemed to spread across the school grounds, moving stealthily to… who knew where. The violet-haired teen blinked slightly, willing his mind to work properly: it wasn't that he was scared of being attacked or killed in the end, but it wasn't the most fun when you had to fight them… and then face family after that.

"Maybe they'll go away if we wait long enough," he said hopefully.

Krad rolled his eyes, "And I'm on drugs."

"I wish you'd stop using that comparison, Krad."

"It seems to be the only thing that has an affect on you, especially when you get in my way." The blonde didn't use drugs (pft. As if) but Dark seemed to have an underlying fear of those things so it was pretty useful when necessary. Maybe it was because of family… somehow.

The two friends would have continued to bicker, but the sound of smashing glass and screams of panic cut them short. Krad frowned, deep in thought, "How do we deal with this, then?"

"Well, we can't be seen fighting with them, we don't have any weapons anyway," Dark ticked off, "Dunno. You tell me."

During this, they had moved away from the window, which was a good thing, seeing that it was smashed a moment later, only scattering the glass so that… well, they weren't in as much pain as they could have been, to say the least. The door slammed open and the teacher gaped at the monsters that were slowly approaching them. He didn't even move until one of the girls in the classroom screamed and then there was widespread panic.

Doors were slammed open and the students and teachers streamed out of the room, panicking like the world was going to end: then again, it was very uncommon for monsters to attack at all, which made no sense whatsoever. While the chaos was in place, Dark and Krad moved off in another direction. Why the monster wasn't moving, no one really knew.

"Dark-kun! Krad-kun!"

Krad momentarily paused in his advancement on the way upstairs, only to have Dark cannon into him, and since he did have glass in his back…

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, Krad!"

"Just get off me."

Daisuke and Satoshi soon appeared, only to be followed by Akane. The redhead was the first to talk, "The entire school's in chaos, so we have to fix it! Oh… what happened to you two?" He didn't bother to wait for them to reply before working up a healing spell, seeing that the glass had fallen out before… it was a shallow cut, thankfully.

"I agree with dealing with it," Krad said once the spell was done, "But how do you propose we do that? We don't have any weapons."

"Well, that's why Takada's here, really," Satoshi jabbed a finger at the girl behind him, who looked slightly insulted at being referred as that, but couldn't bother to argue back.

"Hey, don't ask me why I can summon weapons now," she muttered to herself, holding out both hands, "Must be that whole Spirit-talking-communicating-thing. Or something of that nature."

They were interrupted as the shadow that had smashed the window on that floor skidded into their sight and charged right at them. Without hesitation the five bolted up the stairs. Of course, by this time there were more and more of the creatures coming after them so it was only by chance that they'd been able to get to the school roof and slam the door without any major injuries.

"This… can't be… good… right?" puffed Daisuke, wiping his brow as he bent double, trying to catch his breath.

"Nothing like this is ever good. Not to mention we don't know what it is," replied Satoshi.

"…" Akane was now muttering under her breath and after a moment of silence, she sighed; "Okay, hold your hands out and, uh, concentrate on your weapon of choice." She was already clutching what looked oddly like a staff with string attached to it, for some reason, "We don't have all day."

They did what they were told without making a comment on how ridiculous the entire concept was, but after a while, a stream of magic seemed to form around their hands and then took a more solid shape. Magic really did work wonders sometimes. That and Akane had now used more magic than necessary, so she wasn't going to be very useful in the battle. They hadn't expected too much in the first place, anyway.

"Okay then!" making a quick recovery, Dark smirked and waved his sword around like a maniac, "So let's get this started already!"

"This isn't a game you know," Krad reprimanded him, "If you die, it's not like we can bring you back to life."

"Unless you use the right spell at the right time," Daisuke added helpfully.

"… That isn't the point."

"They're here," Satoshi cut in.

The door slammed open and crashed on the floor, shadows streaming all around and surrounding the five teens, seeing as they were standing around the middle of the… uh, rooftop.

"We can't fight all of these," muttered Krad in annoyance, "and I can't use _that_ again either."

"You mean… that weird thing you used last time when you went crazy?" Dark asked.

"No," the blonde replied sarcastically, "I mean my ability to transform into the Easter Bunny. Moron, of course I'm referring to that."

"Oh," for a moment Dark had been hoping what Krad had said before was true, but it was a bit absurd. And it would be a rather strange, golden-furred bunny as well, now that he thought of it.

Seeing that the violet-haired boy seemed to be out of it – again – Krad turned back to Akane, who wasn't looking too happy with the situation, "Do you think you could talk to them or something? Are these things even spirits?"

"I'm not getting any sort of reaction from them," she admitted softly, "If they hadn't smashed the windows before, I would say these things are illusions, but…" She turned to Daisuke, who was next to her, "Why don't you give it a try, Niwa-kun?"

"Huh! Why me!" squeaked the redhead, taken by surprise; and the pressure was getting to him, "I mean, what am I supposed to say to them!"

"Niwa, you can speak to these things?" well, that was a surprise.

"Actually, Niwa-kun only found out on our way to find you two."

"Oh."

Satoshi turned to his friend, who was fidgeting slightly now, "If these aren't spirits, then what are they?"

Daisuke hesitated for a moment before replying, "They're unformed beings, incomplete and have nowhere to go. I mean… they shouldn't be here then. Did someone send them after us?"

"_Join us… don't try to run away…"_

Dark paled slightly, his mind going instantly to the first voice that had been heard but the others hadn't heard. "Did you… just hear that?"

"Yeah," Krad nodded.

Well, at least he wasn't going insane. "And if we don't want to join you, or whatever? Get real." The shadows, which had been completely still during all this, suddenly rippled like water in anger.

"_Do you dare defy us?"_

"Yes?"

One of the shadows flew at him, only to be intercepted by an arrow. Without hesitation, Dark brought his sword into a sharp upward-slash which split it in half and there was a moment of silence, before it fell and dissolved into a pile of ash.

The blonde raised an eyebrow, "Interesting."

"_You… you are…"_

"…" they all exchanged confused glances and were taken completely by surprise because rather then being charged by the… things, they all disappeared in a 'poof' of grey smoke. Of course, this left them coughing and gagging, but no harm done.

Dark rubbed a hand over his eyes, "That was sudden. Why didn't they stay?"

"Who knows."

Satoshi wiped his glasses, "Does anyone else get the feeling that they'll be back?"

"Well, if that's the case," Daisuke offered instantly, "We should go home together. Just incase."

"Daisuke, you do know that in the end, one of us will be on our own anyway," Dark pointed out dully.

"…"

"I have to research this though," Akane said, "So I can't hang around." She was also hinting the fact that she knew that she wasn't really wanted around, but it didn't seem to matter to her. "We better get back to class though."

"… uh-oh."

000

"What kinda lame-ass excuse was that!" Krad demanded as he and Dark walked out of their last class of the day.

"Hey! I didn't see you making any excuse up, so I had to pull something out of my head! Come on, it wasn't that bad!"

"What wasn't bad?" asked Daisuke curiously as he and Satoshi joined them as they passed the gate.

The blonde groaned slightly and hit his head, "You don't want to know."

"Actually we do," replied Satoshi, wondering what kind of excuse Dark did use. With that guy, no one could ever know.

Dark grinned, "I told the teacher that we got locked in the bathroom."

"…"

"Uh… okay…"

This time Krad hit Dark over the head, "See! I told you that it was lame!"

"Ow…"

Without further ado, the four made their way home, arguing and the like, seeing who they were and all. After the two younger boys were dropped off, all that was left was Krad walking Dark home…

"Why am I the one being walked home!"

"I think you're scared because of bodiless voices and-"

"Am not!"

"-are too afraid to admit it."

Dark pouted at this, but didn't complain, seeing that he was afraid and all. Just as they reached the street where he had to go home to – Dark really didn't want to go there – but then something popped up in the violet-haired boy's head and he hit himself mentally for forgetting such an important thing.

"Was it just me or did I see a light bulb over your head for a moment?" Krad asked dully, not getting Dark's mood and he was tired already. Home was going to be hell for the blonde as well, considering the day. Maybe they would throw him off the roof this time…

"Oh yeah, Krad! I got you something for your birthday! It's today, right?"

"Huh?" surprised, the blonde could only watch as his friend bounced around excitedly, "Wow, you actually remembered this time."

Dark stopped bouncing momentarily and frowned, "Krad…"

"_We finally found you…"_

"… What the…"

Krad sighed at this, "Great, just what I needed."

Dark was blinking in confusion. "What's going on this time?"

"_We finally found the Hikari boy again!"_

"Krad?"

"Do you want to know?" the blonde watched as his friend nodded, "Well, let's just say they're after me."

"_Kill him!"_

"Or should I say they want to kill me."

"… WHAT!"

That was when the clouds began to cover, and the reality struck.

000

All I can say is strange. Very strange. And nothing really happened. Pft. Maybe the next chapter… Oh, and yes, happy Birthday Krad. How old is he now? Uh… 17 or 18? No idea anymore…

**Hakudoshi-chan: **Yeah, true. I was actually thinking along those same lines, but they don't even think that way… yet. Well, Dark might. Krad's just… uh… whatever. He's got a lot of family issues to attend with. I mean, what kind of family throws their own family off cliffs? Bats annoy me a lot. That and I actually had my brother show me where one of the dungeons were because I was an idiot…

**neko-nya: **I have a thing against the monsters that eat shields now. Don't know why. Bananas are good to eat. Very healthy. And Krad's being stalked by strange assasin like things! Yaaaaaay! XD Something also very random for me is trying to read all of Shakespeare's plays. Great fun. Well, I'm trying to do the next chapter now… kinda…

**Gabriel of Dreams-Yume Chan: **Welp, here's the update. Hope you enjoyed it!


	7. Chapter Seven: Don't Ask Don't Answer

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept.

Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU.

Er… yay! An update! Finally! Don't know about you, but I think I've lost my touch…

000

_"If you know what's right, then that's all you need. Sometimes that's all that's necessary, but... oh, you know what I mean."_

Nina

"_Every living creature on this earth has a reason for existing. But I wonder… what is the reason for us? Is there even a reason?_

_What? Yes… okay. Maybe there is a reason, but we have yet to know…"_

Daisuke Niwa

--- Seven: Don't Ask; Don't Answer ---

Dark rain clouds completely blanketed the afternoon sky and it was a plain gray; yet there was no rain. Sharper gusts of wind hit the two figures, ruffling their hair as they went, yet there was a still silence that no normal person could comprehend. It was incredible unsettling.

Meanwhile, the purple-haired teen was giving him a stare that read disbelief, perplexity, concern and… something else. But no one could really say. He was probably just worried, anyway. Krad was ignoring this, with his weapon drawn out next to him in an 'at ease' position, waiting for something to happen.

Eventually, Dark ended up breaking the silence, since he wasn't the type of person to keep quiet this whole time.

"Okay… if they want to kill you… might I ask as in WHY?" his own weapon was being waved around just for the sake of it and besides, there was no one else around to bother them.

Krad shrugged at this, "They just feel like it."

"You know, that really doesn't comfort me."

"I think I worked that out beforehand."

Dark couldn't believe how calm the blonde could be, especially since it was obvious that they were intent on killing him. Okay, what had they gotten themselves into this time?

Anyway, said blonde was now glancing at the purple-haired teen, wondering what was going through his pea-sized brain at that very moment. Not too much, he assumed, so what?

This entire scenario didn't actually surprise him in any way, because that was one of the main reasons to him not getting much sleep lately – but he didn't need to tell Dark that; he'd freak. And when Dark freaked, one could never know if they were going to get out of it alive.

But then again, the streets were really, really deserted. And the houses looked desolated and abandoned. Although he avoided this street as much as possible, he knew that there were residents in every building, but since there wasn't even the faint flicker of movement…

"Spells?" he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. But Dark heard and he nodded.

"So where are they?" he asked softly, eyes darting everywhere in case of a pre-emptive attack, which was never any good. Krad shrugged and blinked as the first scatter of raindrops made themselves present.

"Great. So now we have to wait for the battle in a downpour," the blonde said with a small sigh, "And watch out." He shifted to the side and watched as Dark dove to the side as something akin to an arrow shot out of nowhere and embedded itself into the concrete footpath.

"Okay… well, we know they're here, at least," Dark shook his head in disbelief and looked around again, "Can you sense them anywhere, Krad?" The rain was getting denser and he had to shift a bit closer to keep an eye on his friend. The blonde gave a half-shrug, but then stiffened slightly.

"Yeah, they're here," he concluded the obvious, "But I can tell you that they're getting closer now, and this rain isn't helping too much either."

"Well duh," the purple-haired teen rolled his eyes in exasperation, but was promptly ignored for that, "I think I was aware of that beforehand. And as for the rain, maybe we should just call Satoshi and Daisuke… or something."

"And WHO here has a phone?"

"… Okay…"

Their conversation was rudely interrupted by the annoyed tones of whoever it was attacking them.

"_Are you two done yet? We don't have all day."_

"_I want out of the rain."_

"_Can't we kill the Hikari tomorrow? This is too much for one day."_

"_Well, the school scenario wasn't that pleasant anyway…"_

Dark was the first to put up a complaint when he finally worked out what was going on; "Wait, you were the ones who sent those things after us at school? Why the hell would you do that!" Krad would have said something but saw that there wasn't much of a point, seeing that the other boy wouldn't be listening to anyone.

"_Yes. But then we had to go and do something else."_

"… Nice," Dark muttered. The rain was getting a lot harder by now and it was going to be impossible for them to do battle. The other side seemed to be in the same wavelength.

"_I can't see my hands."_

"_I'm cold."_

"_And wet."_

"_I wanna go hoooome…"_

"_Shut up!" _snapped the leader – Dark assumed – voice, _"When we finally get this done, we won't have to chase the stupid boy everywhere. We've been doing this for too long!"_

"If you want to know," Krad muttered, before Dark could open his mouth to interrogate, "They've been after me for the past week or so. But most of the time they leave me alone."

The purple-haired teen bristled, "They were chasing you for HOW long!"

"I knew you'd freak."

"I'm not freaking out!"

"Then what are you doing now?"

"Shut up!"

It looked like talk was finally over because another arrow cut past them and narrowly missed them and they decided to stop arguing until after the situation had been dealt with.

000

Daisuke had that small, nagging feeling in the back of his mind and he fidgeted slightly under his umbrella. Besides the fact that he was going to fall behind his homework again, he couldn't ignore this other feeling and now he was right outside Satoshi's house. And since it was quite a way from his own house, his navy blue umbrella was still sitting over his head and creating a puddle all around him. he needed to tell someone about this.

Why? Well, who else was he supposed to turn to with magical discharges? He really didn't want his family to know, seeing that they would run around screaming for their life, and he had to try the only alternative.

Right… and now he was out on the front porch, trying to remain as dry as possible and muttering under his breath while he waited for someone to answer. For a moment the only thing that he could hear was the rain falling. Then, he managed to hear someone inside the house. Well, they were yelling, but it was the same in the end. Either way.

"Will someone get the door! Kaz! GO NOW!"

"…" said child opened the door and gave Daisuke a bored look, "What's up?"

"Uh… I want to talk to your brother—" began Daisuke, sweat dropping at the intensity of the stare, but was cut short when Kaz was knocked aside by none other than the youngest child of the Hiwatari family.

"Hi there! Whatcha-up-to!" she squealed. The redhead raised one eyebrow, seeing as this was actually the first time he'd actually come face-to-face with Leah. The reason to this was because Satoshi chose not to mention the subject much and he always did warn Daisuke not to come.

She was obviously short, with shoulder-length blue hair that was tied back with a pink bow and she had a sort of evil grin stuck on her face. The first thing that popped into Daisuke's head was the beginning of a fangirl-in-making, and after seeing his older friends caught in that sort of life, he didn't really want to think too much about it.

Of course, he was spared staring at this obviously dangerous child when Satoshi appeared, looking bored; as usual. Pushing Kaz and Leah away and ordering to go back and annoy the parents, he then turned his attention towards his smaller friend.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Uh… let's just say that I've got this really, really, really bad feeling that something isn't right." The redhead sighed and stared at the floorboards below him, not knowing what else to say, but it didn't seem to matter because the blue-haired boy was looking past his shoulder at the moment.

"It's raining quite a bit, isn't it?" he commented lightly, before disappearing for a moment, only to return with a jacket and pulling his shoes on, "Let's go."

At this, Daisuke smiled brightly and they left. That was, Satoshi said something about leaving for a bit, got a grunt in reply, and then closed the door without another thought.

The redhead sweat dropped at that.

Seeing that it was raining - and rather hard at the moment - it was a lot darker than what one would have thought possible just a while after school and Daisuke was back in a sort of meditating mood; Satoshi had taken hold of the umbrella by this point of time.

"So do you have any idea what it might be?" he asked in a low voice, as some guy in a business suit rushed past them. "We don't want to run into something that we can't handle."

"Monsters," Daisuke answered with a small shrug, "They're giving the same vibes as those shadow things at school today. I'm not exactly sure." He bit his lower lip at this and then looked around as a couple of cars skidded down the road, "Don't you think that it's a bit… hard to see anything?"

Satoshi didn't say anything to that at first, but after a few more minutes walking – which didn't get them far, because there was a good chance of them running into someone, or cars – he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The redhead couldn't help but laugh at his glasses, which were now fogged up.

"I suppose a little blow over will be fine, then…" the blue-haired boy muttered, ignoring his friend, but not without hitting him lightly.

Rubbing his head and still grinning, Daisuke relieved his friend of the umbrella and watched silently as Satoshi preformed the spell.

000

Dark hissed in pain as another arrow managed to cut across his arm and swung in that general direction. Could the rain really be any denser! He was thinking this way, but what more could be said and done, seeing that he actually couldn't see anything, and he wondered how Krad was doing. He had lost sight of the blonde sometime as the actual fight began, and the only thing he was really worried about was either attacking his friend, or getting his head severed off by said blonde. He really wasn't looking forward to that proposition.

As the battle continued relentlessly, like the rain, neither side seemed to get very far, and that wasn't a good thing, since they were going to be sick after this. With a quick upwards slash, Dark thought he hit something, but he highly doubted it.

"Hey, Krad!" he yelled over the downpour all around and on top of them.

"What?" the blonde yelled back some good few meters away, he assumed.

"How're you going?"

"Well, what do you think!" Krad snapped, "I can't see anything in this godamn rain!"

Well, at least he knew he was still alive; Dark had to admit, as he jumped out of the way and skidded on the concrete. The drainage pipes weren't working either, seeing how much rain was pelting down on them, and he ground his teeth in annoyance as he brushed his hair back.

Then… the rain began to cease.

"Huh?" Dark looked up as the downpour fell into a drizzle, and knew instantly that a certain someone had just finished messing with mother nature's work. It helped them, of course, but it also helped their enemies.

They weren't the most exciting things to see, but there were a lot more than Dark had thought; and there were a couple of carcasses on the concrete footpath around the two teens. Wait, didn't that mean that they had hit something! It seemed unlikely, but who knew.

"_What happened?"_

"_No more rain…"_

"_I wanna go home…"_

Just then, one of the much larger monsters pointed at Dark and Krad and screamed something about chopping off their heads and killing them, so it was right back to fighting; accompanied with groans and protests. No one was in the mood to fight in the cold, anyway. But who was going to listen to their complaints?

That and the monsters weren't exactly coordinated, but it looked like more were pretty much appearing out of nothing. Which didn't make any sense due to the law of stuff and all that junk the science teacher had tried to drill into their brain.

"You can't make or destroy matter," she'd said in an annoying voice, "you can only balance it out."

Well, if that was the case at the moment, it looked like they were being made out of nothing, unless they were splitting into more. Nah, they were being created from nothing and that was final.

Anyway, back to the battle and the two teens were putting up a good fight, which involved destroying most of the monsters without too much difficulty. But they were also suffering from the cold and they couldn't fight forever.

That's where Satoshi and Daisuke came into the picture.

Having abandoned the umbrella somewhere back because it was too much to drag that with their weapons along, the redhead was gasping for breath while his friend wasn't looking any better. Despite that, they fell right into battle and for one reason or another, the multiplication of monsters stopped.

Okay, it was coincidence it all its forms.

The monsters bid a hasty retreat after this and Dark sneezed loudly as the rain began to fall into downpour again.

"Great," Krad held out a hand and watched as the droplets fell on it, his hair already beyond saturated, "Just what we need. More rain."

"What happened?" Daisuke asked as he looked around, obviously regretting that he had left the umbrella somewhere. And his parents were going to tell him off for losing it. Ugh…

"For some reason the monsters wanted Krad's head on a plate," Dark explained simply, and sneezed again. "Ah, crap…"

"Right, that's nice," snorted Satoshi, "And now we have to walk in the pouring rain thanks to your unknown attraction to monsters."

Krad raised a brow, seeing as the rain wasn't as dense as before, so they could communicate at a safe distance, "And what do you mean by that, exactly, hmm?" His hand was still holding onto his sword and he held it up casually, but then Dark gave an exceptionally loud sneeze which brought their attention back to him.

"I'm going to be so sick after this…" he mumbled, "And my homework's soaked now thanks to those stupid monsters."

"I didn't know you cared about your homework so much," Satoshi commented coolly. The purple-haired teens head snapped up.

"Do you want to repeat that!" he barked.

Daisuke waved his hands around, trying to calm everyone down, "We shouldn't be talking about this in the rain! And we have to get home--" he sneezed. Satoshi shook his head and sighed.

"Is it just me or do you get sick easily?" he asked the redhead, who sniffled a bit.

"It's not my fault," he muttered.

"Well, seeing that it'll take you guys forever to get home," Dark decided right there and then before he sneezed again, "Why don't you just stay at my place for a bit? Or stay the night, whatever. Just until the rains clears up."

Krad blinked at this, "Won't they kill us though? We all know how much they hate us."

The purple-haired teen waved it aside with a nonchalant air, "Don't worry 'bout it. My room's big enough to stay in, Raine's at work, Karal said she was going out with some guy--" he coughed loudly and obviously at this, "And Christina, Nina and Aeka won't mind you around. They're the most sane ones. Myself included."

"And who ever said you were sane?" commented the blonde as they slowly made the short trip to the building that Dark had to live in, "Personally, I think you're insane. And that's just the tip of the iceberg."

"Hey!" he sneezed again, ran into the door and it swung open. He fell to the floor in a large puddle of water, and found himself looking at a pair of sock-wearing feet. He looked up. "… Hi."

"I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you," Nina smiled at him before noticing the other boys and the state they were in, "Hey! You must be those evil-doers Raine talks about all the time! Come in!" She stepped out of the way, dragging her brother down the hallway in the process.

Not one to ask many questions, Nina led them to the living room, which was free from evil candles for the time being, and then told Dark to grab some towels and dry off before they all died of influenza.

"Nice house you have," Satoshi commented sarcastically as he looked around at the décor around them, "Planning to communicate with some spirits soon?"

"Ha ha, very funny," Dark laughed and threw the dark green towel at him, "As for something like that, Raine seems to think that you can only do it when you've accepted the whole religion thing completely, but it's pointless."

"Does that mean you've talked to them or not?" questioned Daisuke as he caught the next towel thrown.

"Sure. With Christina and Aeka. Strange, Christina seems to be really good at this stuff, but she's really scared of what the others might say…" he mused for a moment, but then stopped when he noticed the person he'd been talking about entered the room, "Hey."

"Ah… er…" Christina flushed a bit when she noticed the uninvited guests and looked ready to bolt, but then noticed With, "With! Welcome back!" She held out her hands and the happy bunny-demon hopped up to her. "How was your day, Onii-san?"

"Crazy stuff," Dark shrugged, "School's been hell. But yeah. Wait, you weren't walking home in the rain, were you?" He noticed that her hair looked slightly damp and he frowned.

She smiled behind her round glasses, "Oh no, Aeka-san picked me up beforehand and then went grocery shopping because Raine-san forgot to again. Oh! And okaa-san and otou-san sent us a letter!"

Despite the fact that it was very cold in their soaked uniform, Dark stopped and looked at her. "… Really now?"

Christina nodded, "Yep!" She seemed to be happy about that fact, but she also failed to notice the frown on her older brother's face. When she returned to her own room, Krad turned a bit to face his friend.

"So, mind telling us what's with the face?" he asked simply.

"To put it simply…" Dark began slowly, "If they've sent a letter, it could mean that they've finally given up on this whole religion crap and are returning to normal society. But since that really isn't a possibility, there's only one reason they'd be sending us anything." He hit his forehead, "Why now?"

"Well?" prompted the blonde in irritation, "What's the reason?"

Both Daisuke and Satoshi were now paying attention as well.

"Look, I don't want to talk about it," Dark replied in a stiff sort of voice, "But hey, why don't we go to my room now? I still need to give you your present!" He bounced up the stairs.

The three teens exchanged glances.

"What did he mean?" Daisuke piped up.

"His parents are rather… eccentric," Satoshi pointed out, "So it could mean anything."

"…" Krad chose not to say anything as they got up and followed Dark up the stairs. He knew that most things couldn't even get the purple-haired teen in a mood of frustration, so it had to be something big. Well, he would drop the subject.

For now, anyway.

000

What? That's the end of the chapter? Eh, hopefully I can get another one up soon, but no promise. Dark needs to give Krad his present! What should it be? (I've used that cross idea one too many times… so yeah) And what is it with Dark's parents? What will Raine do if she catches them in the house? Oooh… so many things can happen…

**-Hakudoshi-chan: **Sorry for the long wait! XO I mean… computer troubles really put my off writing this chapter, I suppose. Anyway, the reason for Krad's death is still unknown for now… but soon… and yeah, Dark isn't officially insane anymore!

**-neko-nya: **Krad doesn't look like the sort to go to drugs, huh? Dark's enough to keep him occupied huh? And not in that way! Er… Yeah, they wanna kill him… for some reason… who knows. (shrugs) Hell, even I don't know! o.O It just felt right to write. Maybe you need to tell your immune system off…

**-dimonyo-anghel: **Yeah, they were focused on killing the blonde; dispose the rest if they get in the way. XD Not that they ever managed anyway. Voices with the monsters? … Who knows, who knows. I'm not saying… yet… The reason is still unknown so yeah, and as for the gift… what should it be?

**-Gabriel of Dreams-Yume Chan: **Wah! It took me forever to update! Again, no one knows why they're after HIM, and no one else; the probability of Krad and Dark is higher now… but it'll take a long time… we just have to nudge them in the right direction (wink wink). The black blob monster is… well, just that, I think. No one knows who controls them, and Dark's sisters will… er… rage war in the next chapter? Maybe. That's about the best on answers I can give you, so I hoped it helped. Sorry for the slow update!

**-kyo's little koneko: **glad you… liked it. :) Yeah! I mean, out of all of them, Christina, being the youngest… well, she's a lot more peaceful than the rest of the girls. And Krad lives… as if I could kill him off… here's the update. Thanks for the reviews!

**-kittenoftime: **Mou… sorry for not updating sooner. I'm glad you thought it was good.

And now back to the drawing board… XD


	8. Chapter Eight: Family Fights are Fun

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept.

Warnings: As it turns out, Dark and Krad are only FRIENDS, as well as the other two. There's a reason to this… so yeah. Oh, and the usual spelling and grammatical errors…

Whoopee… and update… why do I take so long?

000

"_Every living creature on this earth has a reason for existing. But I wonder… what is the reason for us? Is there even a reason?_

_What? Yes… okay. Maybe there is a reason, but we have yet to know…"_

-- Daisuke Niwa

"_Why are you always pulling us into these messes…?"_

-- Krad Hikari

--- Eight: Family Fights are Fun… I Think ---

Crashing into the door was the only way to describe how Dark exactly opened it to his room. The other three watched as the purple-haired teen ran into it out of… well, stupidity, it seemed, and it slammed open under his weight, leaving him to groan on the floor.

Satoshi glanced impassively while the other two sweat dropped, "Let's just hope that he doesn't get up anytime soon."

"Satoshi-kun… you're so cruel…" muttered Daisuke nervously, peering down at the dazed teen. The blue-haired boy shrugged while Krad bent down to heave his friend up.

"… Too bad then," the blonde concluded, "He's already recovering." Unable to help it, he continued, "I suppose it has something to do with the fact that his skull is thicker than most brick walls."

Dark's head snapped up, "Hey!" He would have said more after that, but his head hit the bottom of Krad's chin and, obviously, they were in pain. They reeled away from each other and Dark staggered into the room. "Ow…"

"Well, you're very considerate," muttered Krad, rubbing his chin as the rest of them piled in. Upon seeing the state of the room, one could only wonder how many hours a day that he actually lived in it; and considering the rest of his family, he was probably there all the time. Now, if only he had a kitchen and a bathroom connected to it…

He stopped thinking this way because sooner or later, he would most likely find Dark waving a hand in front of his bad. And that was the last thing he really needed at the moment. After the lack of sleep and the monster attacks, he seriously wondered if there was any other way to get a normal life; besides running out of the country in desperation. Oh, the way the world worked. A very strange place they lived.

Okay, why was he thinking this way now?

He shook his head. Maybe he was sick.

"Krad?" Dark looked over his shoulder, frowning in concern. Satoshi was looking out the window, and Daisuke looked like he was trying hard not to run around and clean the place up. He really did have that tendency to impulsively clean a dirty place up, huh? Strange, strange kid. Honestly, being an only child could do strange things to them.

But that didn't mean that their own families were any better. Looking over his own family… history, the blonde shuddered. Then he pulled himself together and looked back at his concerned friend.

"Yeah?"

"You are really, really, really out of it today," the blonde teen pointed out simply, "Are you sure that you're alright?"

Krad raised an eyebrow at this before replying, "And what would make you think that I'm not feeling well? Or are you questioning my mental ability?" True, there was some reasoning behind that sort of behavior, but he really didn't need to be asked if he was mentally insane.

"No, it's not that." Dark seemed thoughtful for a moment as he tried to explain what he meant, "It's just that we all seem to have pretty screwed up families; besides Dai-chan, anyway." He added when he noticed the small redhead opening his mouth in protest, "And, you know, the whole thing about families being odd can rub off on their children… well…"

Satoshi wiped his glasses clean as he stood by the window, "He's questioning all of our sanity now. But then again, he has none."

"Shut up, you creep!"

The blonde rolled his eyes as the two began to argue back and forth and Dark completely forgot about what he had been talking about just before. Daisuke didn't seem to be in any better mood and he just offered a sigh of resignation before joining the older teen. "Why do you think they always fight?"

He shrugged and watched with faint-yet-old-amusement, "Because Dark has no brain and Hiwatari has too much of them?"

"Er… I guess…"

"I suppose you can say that with the amount of brains that that kid has, Dark could really use them," Krad suddenly grew thoughtful, "Makes you wonder how he actually managed to get into school, considering his incredibly low IQ level. Wonders will never cease…"

Jerking his head in their direction, Dark scowled; obviously he'd heard the last part. "Hey! That's not exactly the best thing to say to me! And why am I arguing with you anyway!" He gave Satoshi a blank look, who didn't say anything and merely glared before turning away. "Oh well, have it your way then." He looked around the mess that was his room. "Now, why were we here again…?"

"I think you're having a brain shortage as well," Krad pointed out, "And today is my birthday."

Remembering when the blonde said this, Dark began to plough through his mess and tried to find something… no one knew what, and considering who it was that was doing the searching, it might have been better than to think about it. It was much safer that way.

But life, being as cruel as it was, would not let it drop, and the other three boys waited until the teen disappeared in the mess and they couldn't tell what was human and what was mess.

That was scary enough for them.

Eventually Dark reappeared out of the wave of clothes and held up something triumphantly. The other three gathered around to see what it was.

…?

"Uh… Dark?" Daisuke asked hesitantly, "What is it?"

The teen shook it in front of them and then blinked, "I… don't know…"

Everyone sweat dropped at this and no one said anything. But then again, it wasn't like their minds were working right, after the battle that they had and now there was a large chance that they had caught influenza.

But, knowing the purple-haired teen, he just lost a couple of brain cells.

He passed it over to the blonde, who looked at it skeptically and then turned it so he could get a better view of it. Eventually, he peered over at his friend, who was ignoring the looks of disbelief from the two younger boys.

"… It's a box."

"Well, what do you know! It is!"

Krad hit him over the head for that.

000

During this time, Aeka was currently arguing on the phone with Raine, who didn't seem that happy with the proceedings at all.

"Look, I know that you find this serious, but Christina's just a kid!" shouted the younger of the two, "And you do know that both mum and dad don't give a damn about her either! We heard them talking about ages ago and we know about it!"

"Christina shows great potential," snapped Raine coldly, "And you cannot get in the way. It's essential that we do it soon."

"You can't do that to her and you already know that!" Aeka fumed, trying to keep her temper in check, "And we all know that Dark won't like it a bit when he hears about your… plans for her. And he won't be the only one standing up against this decision!"

There was a moment of frosty silence between the phone lines, and then Raine continued like it was just a normal conversation, "We have to deal with it now, and you know that only two or three of you cannot stand against the rest of the force. Give it up and get Christina ready."

"No way!" before she knew what she was doing, Aeka had slammed the phone back down and was shaking. How could that just happen! She knew, from the start, that the youngest child held a power that could be well and truly feared, but if she was placed in _their_ care… who knew what would happen?

"Aeka-san…"

Looking up and smoothing back her frazzled hair, she blinked at Christina, who looked worried and concerned behind her glasses. She was clutching onto Dark's 'pet' and didn't look very happy with what she saw.

"Christina, how long have you been there?" questioned the older girl, having finally calmed down enough to hold a conversation that wouldn't scare the hell out of the younger child. Said child tugged at the back of her ponytail hesitantly, gnawing her lip, as if undecided on what she was supposed to say. With seemed to reflect on her actions as well, and if a demon could look sad, that's what it looked like at that very moment.

"Where's Raine-san taking me?" she finally asked softly.

Aeka paused at this; how much HAD the girl heard? And there was absolutely no way she was going to let that older, and definitely more brainwashed and scary girl take control of her youngest sister, who really didn't need that influence. No way in hell, and all that other random stuff people say.

She bent down and beckoned Christina to enter the room, "She's no going to take you anywhere as long as we're around," she replied gently, "Why do you ask that, anyway?"

The girl shifted nervously again for a moment, like she was weighing her words down carefully in case of reprimandation, "Raine-san has been talking about it a lot, and I hear her all the time… and the letter we got from okaa-san and otou-san said something like that as well… so…"

Smart kid, but then again, she wasn't exactly stupid, was she. With a small sigh to vent her frustration, Aeka stood up properly and gave her sister a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about it. It's not going to happen as long as your older sisters and somewhat insane brother are still around. Okay? So don't worry about it."

Christina returned the smile brightly, but as soon as she was out of the room, she gave a darkened glance at the wall in front of her.

000

Eventually Daisuke had been unable to take in the mess that was Dark's room and was now trying to clean and sort it out. He would have done the job alone, being somewhat of a neat freak in his own terms; but Satoshi couldn't stand just sitting around and having to listen to Dark's stupid comments and offered to help. The two younger boys found that the task was a lot harder than one would have thought, and you had to wonder when was the last time someone had stepped into the room and cleaned it up.

On the bright side, there wasn't much rotten food lying around; and for that they were grateful.

"How long do you think it'll take before the rain stops?" asked the redhead as he pulled out a textbook dated twenty years back. He frowned at it and tossed it to one side with all the other out-of-date books and continued to shuffle around.

Satoshi shrugged lightly at this and peered out of the window, which was completely fogged up at this point. "I'd have to say around early morning tomorrow."

"Ah…"

While they continued with their pointless talk about anything and nothing, Dark and Krad had decided to raid the kitchen to see what they could eat that wouldn't kill them. Just like the rest of the house, the kitchen had a dreary feeling to it and seemed fairly hostile to strangers; Krad being one of them.

The blonde looked around at the cleanliness of it all, "Do you and your family ever eat in here?"

"What?" Dark didn't seem to understand the simple question as he stuck his head into the refrigerator, "Well, I kinda doubt it. Seeing that we would be tearing at each other's throats and all, so… no?"

"I see…"

Watching the purple-haired teen, it was obvious that he lived in a home that wasn't exactly the most supportive and caring about the people within them, but then again…

It was like what he'd said; about them living in a strange sort of family, and he had a point. It was kind of sad when one thought about it, and it was worse about their… unique abilities and the like.

Where were they in society then?

One could only wonder in these sort of situations.

"Cheese?" something was shoved under the blonde's nose and he raised a brow before pushing it out of the way.

"Is that the best you can do?"

Dark shrugged, looking at the yellow block like it was a lego piece; something very inedible, "Well, I tend to just eat take-out, you know. So most to all of this stuff is kinda used for lunch… that Aeka deals with for us, cause most to all of us are too lazy to make it ourselves. And Raine's never home, so it's all good and all. So yeah."

"Right…" Krad wondered if he should throw in a random/sarcastic comment, but then Nina popped into the dreary kitchen, grinning like there was no tomorrow. That and she was holding a cordless phone and seemed to be in the middle of punching in a number.

"So, who wants pizza?" she asked to no one in particular, but then looked up and pointed a finger at Dark, "Come on, you know you want some."

"… Did you have too much sugar again?" was all he could ask, but then nodded, "Sure, whatever. There's nothing in here anyway."

She laughed before finishing the number punching, "Well, nothing that Aeka and Raine won't kill you for taking. We needed more stuff for lunch and all, you know."

"I know, I know…"

There was the distinct sound of someone tripping over something and then falling to the floor upstairs, and that could only mean one thing… both Dark and Krad sprinted up the stairs and into the boy's room.

Daisuke was on the floor in a heap, and rubbing the top of his head; why, no one knew. "Ow…"

"Are you okay?" asked Satoshi, offering a hand.

"… Uh… yes?" the redhead took the offered hand and was pulled up, "Thanks, Satoshi-kun."

Krad blinked as he and Dark stood at the doorframe, "How did you manage to trip in the first place?"

"Who knows," the purple-haired teen replied before the younger boy could even open his mouth, "Dai-chan has always been over to trip on nothing. This is just another way to prove his lack of foot coordination."

"Dark-kun…" Daisuke pouted, "Shouldn't you be glad that we're actually cleaning this up for you?"

Dark waved a nonchalant hand at this, dismissing the idea at once. "You did it yourself; I never asked for this pigsty to be tidied up."

"Your disorganization amazes me," Satoshi commented, "How you manage to find the front door through all this, one has to wonder…"

One could almost see the vein pop in Dark's head, "You… are going to DIE for that!" Disregarding the fact that there was a stack of books and clothes piled everywhere, he tried to tackle the other boy, who managed to dodge him. And that didn't make Dark happy at all.

At the sidelines, both Daisuke and Krad watched in amusement, "Who do you think is going to trip over the mess first?"

"Huh? Oh… chance of draw, I suppose…"

"What's what supposed to mean?"

"I don't quite know myself… what did Dark-kun get you anyway?"

"Who knows. The boy is taped shut quite a bit. And I think Dark was proud of his taping skills, so I don't think I'll be opening it anytime soon."

"Ah… okay…"

As it turned out, everyone tripped over something in the room, since the doorbell rang, the pizza came, and Dark managed to tackle Krad in the process and Satoshi just tripped over… who knew what; Daisuke nearly fell down the stairs, but the blue-haired managed to save him from that predicament, and Dark nearly ran into the wall. No one knew why, but it was a close call.

Aeka raised a brow when she noticed the other three people; having had no clue about the arrangements for the time being; she'd been too busy arguing on the phone with Raine to pay the world much attention; "School project that I never knew about?"

"Nah. Monsters, raining, and I couldn't leave them in the rain, right?" Dark replied coolly. She shrugged at this, mind obviously elsewhere, and they ate… whatever was on the pizza. As far as they were concerned, it was edible, and even the little imps in the basement wouldn't disagree with that.

Or so Christina said.

Why they were still there… who knew.

Who knew at all…

Then Aeka popped up with a question that Dark had clearly forgotten about, "So… are you planning to share the one bed, or are the others going to sleep on the floor?"

"Er…"

"He never thought that far, huh?" chuckled Nina.

"Eeto…" Christina still seemed fairly nervous and was paying attention to the plate in front of her more than anything else. Krad, Satoshi and Daisuke glanced over at a very confused Dark and he merely blinked back at them.

Rolling her eyes at the no reaction situation, Nina decided to take the matter into her own hands, "Let's see… you can't sleep in the living room, cause Raine might see you and then sacrifice you to the evil overload who-knows-what… I think we have a spare room… somewhere?" She looked over to where the other girl was sitting, and she nodded briskly.

"But it's never been used, so you might want to give it a good dusting down… and there's only one bed, so…"

"That's all okay," she pointed at Daisuke and Satoshi, "You two can have that room for the night and the blondie," she pointed a finger at Krad, "Can share with Dark. Okay? Okay."

The decision hadn't really processed into anyone's minds, and when it did… well… they didn't know how to react, to say the least. But it was also obvious that there was no other way around the situation (unless they really wanted to sleep on the floor or go out… in the dark… and most definitely get attacked by monsters prowling along) and besides, they got along fine… in the end. Except for Dark's ignorance and… yeah.

Daisuke borrowed the phone to call his parents, Satoshi was using his mobile, and Krad? Krad simply stated that his parents couldn't care less about his whereabouts, and as long as he wasn't dead, that was fine with them.

000

Sometime during the night, Dark jerked out of his sleep when he heard a loud crash; like someone had just killed the front door. Krad woke up as well, blinking blearily at his friend. "What's going on?"

The purple haired teen could only shrug, "I don't know, but I'm going to go and find out."

"Hn…"

Pushing back the hair that was getting in his way, Dark left the room and peered down the railing, where the stairs connected with the first floor. It didn't take him long to find out what the commotion was for, because he could locate Raine's voice shouting at something. It was kind of ironic as well, seeing that the oldest sibling never raised her voice unless she was really, really, _really _angry. And it was usually Dark's fault in the first place.

"I don't think you understand the situation! It's the only way this can finally be settled and don't try to give me the speech about blood being thicker than water, because it's not going to work!"

It was Aeka's voice that shouted back furiously, "But to do that would be like giving up our souls to something up above that we know nothing about! We'd lose the meaning of our existence! Do you want to do that to us!"

"You know as well as I do that we're not normal."

"I'm not going to let you hurt anyone in the family. Raine, you've already condemned this family to hell with your teachings, and the fact that you allow both mother and father to use us like puppets… can you not see that we're all not like you?"

"I don't think you understand the situation yourself, Aeka," the older girl's voice had calmed somewhat, but it still had the underlying tone of venom that screamed "danger" in all its forms, "If Christina doesn't go, then they're coming for her anyway. And no one can stop it."

There was incoherent spluttering at this statement, and Dark's breath caught in his throat. They were taking Christina somewhere? And by the sounds of it, it was all part of the stupid religious thing, and that in itself wasn't a good thing.

Wondering on what he should do, the boy's mind wandered back to he letter that Christina had mention and decided that that might hold some answers to the situation. So, without further ado, he crept down the stairs, found the latter sitting on one of the tables in the hallway, and took it upstairs with him.

Upon entering, Krad seemed to have efficiently woken up, and he was giving Dark the 'what happened?' look. He waved the letter and switched on the lights.

"Something to do with the freakin' religion again," he snorted, "And they want to drag Christina in it somehow, and for who knows what reason. Anyway…" He opened the letter, pulled out a single piece of paper, scanned it, and froze; all in a matter of ten seconds.

Noticing this as a bad sign, the blonde reached over and plucked the letter out of his friend's hands and read it; "…"

_Raine,_

_Ritual has failed. All higher-class powers needed. Christina has proven a worthy candidate. We need her for the ritual._

_Don't let anyone else get in the way._

There was no indication of who had written it, but it was obviously something that Dark and his family had experienced many times before, because the purple haired teen wasn't looking happy at all.

"How many times have we told them that we're not going to let that happen?" he ranted to himself. "There's no way in hell that we're going to get involved with this…"

"Dark… are you saying that Christina can use magic as well?"

"… We're still unsure of that. She's shown signs of it, but nothing strong. She's more of a healer, like Daisuke, you know? But how… and why…"

"_You want to talk to Dark's guardian angel?" Akane blinked, not quite understanding what he meant._

"_Well, either that or someone in Dark's family bloodline," the blonde clarified. "I know monster attacks have become more frequent, but they seem to aim at him more than most."_

_The redhead frowned, taking in the information, "I see… well, the balance of magic isn't exactly the most stable… so…"_

"_Can you?"_

"_Yeah," nodding, she led Krad into a smaller room that was completely overwhelmed with scrolls, small crystals and the random trinkets that people had that they believed held good luck. "It shouldn't be that hard anyway."_

_Watching on the sidelines, the blonde could only wait._

Talking to spirits was one thing in itself, but it had done nothing more than confirm Krad's fears, or suspicions, and he didn't like them one bit. Especially if Dark got involved with it. Akane had promised to keep quiet about the whole situation, but she seemed to note the problems at an instant; and that wasn't a good thing.

Flopping back onto the bed, Dark sighed and wondered what the blonde was thinking. If the family were trying to gather people using magic again, all four boys were in danger of being discovered, and he would hate to have to fight his way through them again. It was an unbearable thought.

It wasn't long before the two boys had drifted back off to sleep, and the non-existent rain outside dimmed into nothingness, leaving the sky as gloomy as it had been for the past few days.

It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt; and they all knew it.

000

Oooh… foreshadowing… great. And as for what Dark got Krad, I have no idea. That's why it was taped and all. So if anyone has a suggestion for it, I would really, really appreciate it! I mean, it can be relevant to the story… or irrelevant, I don't care. Thanks. Anyway, er… yeah. Can't say much else…

**Hakudoshi-chan:** Yup, rain is evil. It always seems to do that to them though… maybe it's autumn or winter or something… although winter would mean snow…

**neko-nya: **You're okay still? Immune system okay? Er… yeah. Reverse psychology might work… I wanna get the anime but it's too freaking expensive XO Know any sites on the internet I might be able to use? (actually, there's a low chance in that as well… this computer hates to download really big files… or something…)

**Gabriel of Dreams-Yume Chan: **It hurt to get this done, truth be told. I mean, I started it, then I left it… so I had to pick it up. No idea when the next chapter will be up though. Well, I think they're getting there and yeah! Here's the update! Hope it was okay!

**kyo's little koneko: **I came up with… little. And a lot of bloody chaos in their part. It was fun. XD Any idea what Dark gave Krad? I mean, he's confused, Krad doesn't even know and… yeah.

Thanks to you all for reading and reviewing! Er… other than that, I don't know what else to say. (shrugs) Hope you'll be back for more XD


	9. Chapter Nine: So 'Twas

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept.

Warnings: As it turns out, Dark and Krad are only FRIENDS, as well as the other two. There's a reason to this… so yeah. Oh, and the usual spelling and grammatical errors…

Whoopee… and update… why do I take so long?

000

"_Why are you always pulling us into these messes…?"_

-- Krad Hikari

_"Why is it that we always end up getting in trouble and being chased and stuff? I didn't do anything to insult them. Honest!"_

-- Dark Belcourt

--- Nine: So 'Twas ---

The next morning was gloomy, but Dark lay there, listening intently. It was still very cloudy out, but the distinct sound of Raine getting up and ready for work reached his ears and it was about half an hour later when she was out of the house. Sighing, he sat back up and muttered something under his breath.

Krad raised an eyebrow, still half-asleep, "Can't you just shut up once in a while? People are still trying to sleep here," he grumbled, turning over and grumbling something incoherent in the process.

"Uh… today IS a school day, you know," the purple-haired teen reminded the lump that was his blonde-haired friend.

"So?"

"Aren't we gonna be late?"

"Since when have you cared about being late?"

"Uh… I don't know!" Dark frowned, not knowing why he did care so much, "Since the time you stopped caring, for one!"

The blonde didn't bother to turn to face him, "And since when did I care about whether we were late for school or not? I mean, seriously, it's six in the morning. Unless it takes us over two hours to get to school…" he shook his head at Dark's stupidity, "Don't get over your head already and shut up; your voice is really beginning to annoy the hell out of me."

He fumed, "Why must you always say things that make me sound like an idiot…"

"Because you are one."

"Damn you."

"Temper, Dark, temper."

It was still quite early in the morning – seeing as Krad didn't want to wake up in the first place – and Dark could see that nothing was going to happen staying around and arguing with his half-awake friend. So he did the only thing left; get out of bed and walk around the house. Not like he had much of a choice anyway, and no one would notice the difference.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this idea was that it was so deserted that it made it just a BIT too creepy for its own good. Until he had turned on a light switch, he had been unable to see a thing, and the things that went 'bump' in the night was quite true in theory and in fact.

Then again, it might have been because of With.

With a sigh, Dark got some of the lights on and plodded onwards, with the demon-bunny-creature-of-sorts in tow. He wasn't really expecting to see anything out of place or amazing that would shock him – he just wanted to find a way to waste time – so he went to the first place that came to mind: Raine's room.

A place that was considered practically taboo to the rest of the family. They had grown up taught to respect another's private space and the like, but for some reason, the idea had never sunk into Dark's brain. It was either because of the fact that he had no regard to rules; or that he was just too stupid to comprehend the fact, Krad being the one to offer the latter idea.

So, being who he was, the purple-haired teen walked down one of the creepy hallways that were lined with candles and lamps of sorts that gave very little light, and it wasn't long before he reached the door that took him to the oldest sibling's room. He paused for a moment, undecided. It wasn't that he was afraid or something, it was just a very dangerous place to step in; and knowing Raine, anything could be in there. And that did not include fluorescent pink walls or lots and lots of frills.

No, there was something about her that he just couldn't trust; sure, she was the oldest with the most responsibility, but her actions were sometimes alarming, always mentioning their wrongdoings and making sacrifices to some unknown god… There was a good reason to be very afraid; Aeka and Nina knew that. Christina, though, only wanted to keep the family together and hated watching them arguing with each other, and Karal… was Karal. He snorted; if his sister met Risa Harada, it would be a nightmare come true.

Dark was jerked out of his thoughts as With, who had been sitting on his head, tapped him questioningly, "What, you still up there?" he asked blankly, eye raised in an attempt to look at the creature.

"Kyu!"

"Right… right… I'm supposed to go in there, aren't I?"

"Kyu kyu kyu!"

Giving up with his one-sided conversation, the purple-haired teen pulled himself together, turned the knob on the door, and entered cautiously. In a way, he had expected it to be booby-trapped or something, seeing as she was always so snappish about others in her room, but nothing happened and he stepped into the room. Finding the light switch, he flipped it on.

At a first glance, it was just like any other room; with a bed, desk and chair, some scattered books and paper and the odd pile of clothes that sat in the wardrobe. But Dark, being who he was, noticed the eerie-ness of it all and wondered if it had been the right thing to do to walk in here in the first place. Shuddering, he decided that since he was already there, he might as well take a look around, because he would never get another chance.

Almost dreading what might happen, Dark plunged into the unknown gaps of his family's history and life.

000

Krad opened one eye lazily as he heard the purple-haired teen re-enter the room. He hadn't gone to sleep as soon as he'd heard his friend leave, and wondered what was going on. Especially due to the fact that Dark seemed to be in a sort of trance as he took a seat at his desk. Turning over to get a better view of the teen's back, the blonde then searched around for something on the floor. Picking up a random object, it turned out to be a long kendo-looking stick of sorts. On the whole, he was wondering where it had come from and why, but then just shrugged to himself and did the only thing that seemed possible at the time; poke Dark in the back while he wasn't paying any attention.

As he had suspected, the purple-haired teen had had no idea that Krad was even awake, and although the poke wasn't all that hard, he toppled out of his seat with an undignified yelp and his hit the floor hard. But the only thought that crossed the blonde's mind was that Dark had been lucky that Daisuke and Satoshi had cleaned his room up yesterday.

Spluttering, Dark shot up and glared at Krad, who blinked back innocently, having dropped the stick on the floor again, "Don't do that to me!"

"Do what?"

"You know what I'm talking about!"

"Whatever," sitting up and tugging a hand through his hair, the blonde looked at the wall for a moment, while his friend struggled to get up properly, "So where did you go?"

Halfway through rearranging a stack of papers that didn't need rearranging, Dark froze, "What are you talking about?"

"At six in the morning, you walked out of this room," Krad explained patiently, turning his head to analyse his friend's reactions. Dark seemed to be incredibly tensed up at this point, and hadn't even bothered to turn to face him as he spoke; clearly something was going on that shouldn't be. "And it's been about an hour since then. So where did you go?"

Coughing under his breath, the purple-haired teen straightened up, "…I have no idea what you're talking about." yet he refused to turn around to face him, and the blonde raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. Besides, you went right back to sleep after that." It also sounded like Dark was attempting to reassure himself more than convincing Krad that he hadn't gone anywhere. But these signs were enough to bluntly prove that something had happened, or had been witnessed, and he was refusing to talk about it; again. And, like every other time, the blonde decided to drop the subject for the time being, and got out of bed, rubbing his eyes.

He really did have to talk to Dark about all this; otherwise they were going to be left in the bleakness of confusion if something bad happened, and they had gone through that one too many times for his liking.

Ignoring all that was around him, Dark continued his thinking-sulking train of thoughts and didn't pay the least attention when Krad had left the room and slammed the door behind him.

It wasn't a matter of trust or something; he just didn't know what he was supposed to say. In a way, he was plain freaked out, and dragging his friends into the picture again was a sure sign to cause more trouble within the families and the like as well, so he was just bugged with it all. Whatever he had witnessed had really put him off for the time being, and he would rather not pay too much attention to it.

000

Locating the other two, Krad burst in loudly. Sitting up and yawning, Daisuke blinked at him, while Satoshi sat in a daze that clearly said that he wouldn't be listening too closely as to what was happening.

"Krad-kun? What's going on?" the redhead asked curiously as the blonde closed the door behind him, shaking slightly. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah," he muttered back stiffly, "And I don't think that this is going to turn out good at all."

"Aah…" frowning, Daisuke tapped his friend for a moment, but then shrugged when he got no reaction, "Dark-kun always did have a stranger life than the rest of us, I guess we could say. But his family really is… scary."

"Different, yes," nodded Krad in agreement, "But the fact that there's some sacrifice thing going on now and they want to get Dark's youngest sister pulled into it is just making me go insane! Not to mention the fact that he went somewhere early this morning and won't tell me about it. And I never got that homework done because of all the fighting."

While he waited for the younger boy to process the rambling in his head, the blonde took a seat in the cramped guestroom and tried to get his tangled and knotted mind thought out straight. He was just so out of it and the monster attacks really weren't helping matters. And the contacting with the spirits continued to play through his mind like a broken record as well.

That was the biggest problem of it all; not only were normal people and magic-gifted people in danger of one thing or another – thanks to constant monster waves that had no reason behind it – and the spirits on the other side weren't all that happy either. So they were stuck in the middle of a battleground, so to speak. And that really stank.

"So that means that they're in danger…" muttered Daisuke, partly to himself, and partly to Satoshi, who was slowly getting out of his sleep-induced-out-of-whack state, "Do you have any idea what this might be about, Satoshi-kun?"

The blue-haired boy rubbed his eyes slowly, blinking at the light that filtered through the fogged-up glass of the window, "Hn… we're all doomed?"

Krad couldn't help but roll his eyes, "Wow, how did you come to THAT conclusion?"

Falling into silence for a moment, the redhead got out of bed and paced the room, before, finally, holding up his right hand towards the other two. Like a light bulb (or a bunsen burner) a flicker of magic appeared in the middle of his palm and sat there, strands of dark red magic swirling freely as the center pulsated slowly.

"Why is it that people fear magic?" he asked softly, knowing that the other two were listening in, "Why do they think that it's so different from the rest of us? The fact that some religions seem to want to use it for the worst of situations, we've always had to keep a low profile, haven't we?"

Nodding, the blonde frowned, "Christina has always shown sparks of untrained magic. Not strong, true, but it's there."

"Exactly. They seem to know, in any case. Dark-kun won't say anything?"

"No."

"Hm…"

Coughing slightly, Satoshi gained their attention and pointed bluntly at a clock that was hung up on the wall, still intact and ticking away slowly; "We're going to be late for school." Anything else that might have been said was soon forgotten as they left Dark's home and charged back to their own houses to grab what they needed. Trust people to make such random comments like that.

000

"So Krad Hikari and Dark Belcourt are abse--" stated the homeroom teacher, only to stop abruptly as the blonde charged in, nursing a stitch in his side and not looking all that well-groomed in the end. Coughing slightly, he gave the student a long, thoughtful glare, "Well, I see that you seemed to have managed to drag yourself out of bed well enough. Take a seat." Krad nodded vaguely before stumbling towards his seat and the teacher took a look at the roll again, "So the only person who's late today is Belcourt? Has anyone seen him today?"

No one replied and he marked Dark off. As he tried to regain his breathing patterns to normal levels, Krad's mind slowly registered that Dark hadn't made it to school, and it was only ten minutes into English that he had finally worked it out and panicked.

Jerking up, after grumbling about annoying siblings that just didn't understand, and the blonde glanced to the empty seat that belonged to his friend; it was empty. Well, why else would the teacher have said that he was absent if he had been there? Falling into a muse about how stupid Dark could be, the blonde had to wait for break before he could track down Daisuke and Satoshi.

Trailing towards the relative peace of the school roof, the redhead seemed worried as the blue-haired boy pulled out a thick book with the traditional number of whacky symbols that screamed magic-potential.

"I'm surprised that anything worse could happen," he muttered in a distracted tone while turning the pages randomly, "But it seems to me that you can go a lot further than just raw magic running amok."

"What do you mean?" asked Krad.

"I mean that this 'sacrifice' could be a lot more dangerous," explained Satoshi, "Seeing as his parents are sadistic maniacs in the making, who influences their children, and if they know that she can use some branches of magic, they may be trying to either summon or resurrect something. And knowing them, it's going to be something bad."

"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Daisuke, reading over his friend's shoulder in the process and frowning lightly. "We can't fight it, can we?"

"That would be suicidal."

"Delay it?"

"It'll still happen in the end."

"What? Are we going to gather an army or something?"

"I doubt it."

Rolling his eyes, the blonde stalked over to face the two younger teens, "Seeing as we're the few who can use magic these days, it's not like we have much of a choice, do we?"

Satoshi pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose and met Krad's gaze coolly, "I suppose we really don't have much of a choice, true. But it doesn't mean that we have to jump into the picture and it'll turn out fine. Luck has always been on our side, but even luck won't help too much if we're not prepared."

"And I don't know that?"

They glared at each other silently for a moment, but they said nothing more. Daisuke had relieved Satoshi of his book and was reading it slowly. The pages were faint brown like but not brittle, and the text was still clear enough to read. Symbols and runes filled the sides of the pages, and he deciphered them slowly.

_Death is the second stage of life._

_Spells that can destroy and kill everyone, including the user…_

_People fear them greatly._

Daisuke inclined his head before reading the actual text:

_Magic has long since been considered rather dangerous, with many consequences, with the bearer's holding a lot of self-responsibility. Magic usually run in the blood-line, although a number of rare cases will allow people to be gifted with it without having any ancestral magic-potentials._

_Items can also be used, and those with magic are the basis of protection for the rest of the world; as monsters and other chaotic mishaps can pour forth without warning._

_Yet magic is strong; dangerous, and shouldn't be considered as something that can be controlled and tamed. Magic has many forms, the strongest being unattained for millenniums, due to the fact that it killed the last user._

_It's danger, but necessary—_

"What I want to know is why Dark isn't here!" Krad snapped all of a sudden, making the other two start in surprise. Satoshi shot him a glare, but the redhead had to agree with the aggravated blonde, who was shaking a fist at the sky for no real reason. It was clear that he wanted to punch a certain purple-haired teen in the face, but couldn't.

"He wasn't sick when you left him, was he?" asked Daisuke.

"He was out of it," admitted the blonde grudgingly, "But not sick. I would have known. But the fact was that he left the room at six, after someone left the house, and he came back an hour later like he was in a trance. He wouldn't tell me anything and I left him."

The redhead blinked, "Do you think that he was possessed?"

"No; I would have known, then."

"Then he's worried?"

"A possibility."

"… I'm worried."

"Should we all be now?"

"I think so."

"…"

000

Pacing within his room, Dark was chunnering to himself in self-reprimandation. Oh yeah, he was bugged badly, and he was hating himself for it. With was sitting on his pillow – occupied only once by Krad that morning – and watched as the teen continued to mutter incoherent sentences and lines to no one in particular.

"Kyu?"

"Can't believe… so absurd… doing such a thing…"

Raine's room held so many fragments of their family life; all that time that was what she'd been doing, and he hated her for it. She was family, true, but it didn't change matters now because they were all going to be doomed in the end, that was for sure. How could he have been so stupid? Of course she would end up betraying them in the end; she had never been on their side, anyway.

It was so stupid, so pointless; they had nothing to gain from this all, and everything to lose. And the last thing that Dark wanted to have to face was getting his friends put in danger: especially Krad…

With a frustrated sigh, the teen flopped back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, "… Why us…?" he asked no one in particular.

000

Back in class, where teachers just kept going on and on and on, Krad remembered the small box that Dark had given him yesterday and pulled it out of his pocket. It was sticky taped to the point of insanity – or way too much eagerness – and he wondered how he was going to get it opened. It seemed rather stupid to have a gift and not get it opened, so while the teacher rambled on about equations, the blonde struggled to find a way to get the box opened safely and sticky tape-free.

Ten minutes later, he gave up and ended up slicing it in half with his – incredibly sharp – scissors. Praying that he hadn't butchered the item within (although there was a good chance of that happening), Krad pulled it apart and something fell into his lap.

Looking down at the item, he blinked. At first he would have thought that it was some sort of flat rock that Dark had decided to wrap up for no real reason, but upon closer inspection, he was forced to believe that it was some sort of oval-shaped pin. Not only that, but it seemed to have elaborate designs etched into it, so fine that he had to squint to make out what they were supposed to be. Symbols most likely, and the jewel embedded in it seemed to be jade (yes, he was guessing at this point).

Wondering why on earth Dark would get him a pin for his birthday, he didn't hear the teacher call for him to answer the question.

"—Hikari!"

Krad started and looked up quickly, "Yes?"

"I was wondering, so kindly, if you could answer question fourteen for us, Hikari," grumbled the annoyed maths teacher, "With formulas, explanations and the right answer, of course."

Glancing down at his textbook, the blonde couldn't help but roll his eyes, "Yes…"

Scanning the question quickly, he gave a random answer, got it wrong, and then sat down again as the teacher called up another student, but not before shooting Krad a suspicious glare. Not caring the least about what the answer to the problem was – or how to get the right answer – the blonde slumped back and took a look at the pin again. True, that was a weird birthday present, yet there was something about that he couldn't put his foot on. Was it because of the designs, or because that jades were well known to hold a good deal of magic power? He wasn't too sure anymore.

Shoving the pin into his pocket and dumping the remains of the box into his bag, Krad focused all his attention on the window; waiting for the day to end so that he could 'visit' Dark and find out what was going on. It was getting a bit too hectic and chaotic to just be coincidences, and knowing the Belcourt family, they were behind it somehow; whether they liked it or not.

000

"Hey! Hikari-kun!" called a voice as the blonde was about to leave the school building with Daisuke and Satoshi. He turned with a raised eyebrow as a girl with dyed-aqua (at least, he thought it was dyed) hair ran up to him, bad swinging over her shoulder. He recognised her by sight as there weren't many student with such hair colours – like the fact that Satoshi had blue hair and Dark had purple, of all colours – yet didn't say anything.

"May I help you?" he asked her.

"You are Hikari-kun, right?" she panted, and he nodded in confirmation, "I'm Megumi Sakaguchi; half-demon student and all that usual junk."

"Yeah, what about it?" why she would be talking about her lineage was a mystery to him, and what was the point of it? He was really lost now, as were the other two boys in front of him.

Megumi smiled at him, "Well, I suppose I just thought it was best for you to know that things aren't exactly working out and people are getting into more riots than they should. I mean, monsters and stuff. It's not a pretty sight."

"And what's that got to do with us?"

"Well, demons aren't happy, from what my mother's told me, and with being shunned all their life, they're bound to start some sort of death wave sooner or later."

"…? Shouldn't you be telling this to Melanie?"

"She can't do anything, but you can. That is, you and your friends." The aqua-haired girl waved to them, "Keep that in mind, okay?"

When she was out of sight, Krad exchanged perplexed glances with Daisuke, while Satoshi watched after her, frowning deeply. "She… was weird. Don't you think?"

"But it seems to be some sort of warning… so…"

"Oh yeah," as they began the trip towards Dark's house, the blonde dug out the pin and handed it over to the redhead, "Do you have any idea what this could be for or anything? It was in the sticky-taped box that Dark gave me."

Turning the object between his hands, the redhead frowned slightly, silently, before handing it to Satoshi, who took a quick glance at it before handing it back.

"…Well?" asked Krad.

"It's got magic in it," Daisuke offered helpfully, "But what sort of magic, I'm at a loss. Not a curse or anything… just… magic. Unformed, untouched and yeah, the usual."

"But the designs in the jewel are something else," added Satoshi, looking ahead of him, "They seem to either read some spell that we've never heard of, or some other related topic. And we know that the jade is one of the few magic-holding rocks that are useful if you can't use magic."

The blonde snorted, tucking the pin away, "I worked that out long ago, thank you very much."

"But you asked first."

"I know."

Satoshi scowled but said nothing more as they made their way to the evil-aura-emitting street that Dark lived in. Most people seemed to avoid the place and hurried onwards, not paying any attention to the three teens that said nothing, yet seemed to communicate without words. What they were saying and why was a mystery to them, but it really didn't matter.

About two house-blocks away from their destination, Krad froze and jerked his head up, frowning deeply. Daisuke turned his head, "Krad-kun?"

"They're coming." He stated grimly.

Before the other two could really question what he meant by that, the world kind of went… black…

000

The fact that he had the entire house to himself, Dark couldn't help but feel like he was missing something very important that was incredibly necessary, and he could only pace the empty hallways and rooms out of pure agitation.

Glancing vaguely at something in his hands, he stopped pacing and stared at it for a moment, as if in disbelief. Looking up quickly, he bolted down the stairs and out of the house, leaving the door to swing lazily in the non-existent breeze. Looking around anxiously, he caught sight of some huddled figures and ran over.

Skidding to a halt, he bent down and pulled the innate form of Daisuke up a bit, cursing to himself. He shook the redhead lightly, hoping for some sort of reaction. By the cuts on the younger boy's arms, he could only assume the worst.

"Daisuke! C'mon, wake up!"

Strangely enough, it wasn't long before the redhead stirred and opened his eyes blearing, blinking at Dark almost blankly, "Dar… k…"

"What happened!" he demanded.

"Dar… k… they… Kr… a… d…"

"What? Where's Krad!" suddenly it seemed like the bottom of Dark's stomach had disintegrated.

"They took him… Dark… they took Krad away…"

000

And there you have it. Something actually happens! (gasps in shock and faints) I never thought it would be possible for me to stop rambling on about pointlessness and actually come to some sort of… complication! Yay! And now everyone has to wait until I update to find out what happens XD

**chrnoskitty: **Took me a while to update again, huh?

**neko-nya: **In the end I just had to hurt him (somewhat) in the end. Computers can be so immature at times XO And it's anyone's guess as to where he's gone and what they're going to do to him!

**kyo's little koneko: **XD And yeah, as the youngest child with potential…

**Koway Oceshia:** Wow… er… confusing in a good way or a bad way? I'm actually piecing the story together slowly while typing it out. I only had the beginning really (what, not even the end!) and the middle's a blur. I think I confused myself XO Thanks for the comments!

Er… what else to say? Well, stick around (hopefully) and… uhm… yeah! Thanks again! You all get cookies and ice-cream! (I want ice-cream… o.O)


	10. Chapter Ten: Kidnapped, Captured, Taken

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie and rather pointless concept.

Warnings: As it turns out, Dark and Krad are only FRIENDS, as well as the other two. There's a reason to this… so yeah. Oh, and the usual spelling and grammatical errors…

Er… yeah. I updated. But I have no idea what's going on now. I mean… yeah. It's all a bit over the place now. And Krad was taken away XD Wait… that's not a good thing, is it?

000

"_Why is it that we always end up getting in trouble and being chased and stuff? I didn't do anything to insult them. Honest!"_

-- Dark Belcourt

"It's because of your stupidity that your magic is uncontrollable. If you thought before you acted, then this wouldn't be happening."

-- Satoshi Hiwatari

--- Ten: Kidnapped, Captured or Taken? ---

With a scary bout of unknown and renewed energy that he hadn't known he'd had, Dark was pacing his room back and forth like he was ready to tear a couple of walls down. Then again, the look on his face wasn't all that encouraging either, and the two younger teens were somewhat worried as to what he would do to them if they were to break the silence.

Neither of the two boys were in any seriously wounded condition and all, but Satoshi seemed to be suffering from a migraine of sorts while Daisuke had had to bandage his arm before fainting from blood loss. It was actually quite funny about how fast he had actually recovered from the attack, but he was too concerned over his blue-haired classmate and friend to really say much more. That and the fact that Dark seemed incredibly on edge now.

And Dark didn't look like he was ready to hear it anyway. He seemed to be experiencing a number of various feelings and emotions that not only confused him, but made him more pissed off than what he was feeling already, and he hated the whole 'dealing with one's feelings' thing in the first place anyway. All he wanted was for life to be as normal as possible – which was asking quite a bit, considering that he lived in a somewhat psychopathical family – and just had to worry about attending school and getting into more fights with his friends.

But no, this just _had _to _conveniently _happen on a _completely normal _day when he wasn't at school and the like and he was pissed off still and he was just so… so… He really was beginning to lose whatever sanity he had left. Not that he had been all that sane in the first place, but he could deal with that situation at anytime later; after he dealt with this first.

Looking up with wide eyes, Daisuke pretty much feared for his friend's well-being, knowing from the start that Dark would not take the news well. Then again, he was going to be a lot worse off when he found out WHO had taken Krad exactly; hoo-boy, he didn't want to be around to witness it when that happened and all.

He felt like he really should be saying something, but the older teen's face clearly stated 'do not disturb me or I'll kill you' and he really did value his life enough not to say a thing. That and the fact that Satoshi still looked a bit dazed from the attack. How and why this was so, he was still trying to work it out himself, but his friend would recover sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.

After hearing the single line that meant confusion, pain and the like, Dark had – somehow – managed to drag the two of them into his house and in his room, before fishing out the first aid kit and beginning his pace-around-the-room-looking-incredibly-pissed routine.

Incidentally, it was With who ended up breaking the tension around them.

Completely oblivious to his master's current mood, the demon-rabbit had hopped in and made an instant beeline to Daisuke, whom he'd taken a liking in for some reason. With wasn't colour blind, so maybe it had something to do with the teen's hair colour or something similar, but that wasn't the point at the moment.

"Kyu--!"

"Gah! With?"

"Kyu--! Kyu kyu kyu!"

This seemed to snap Dark out of his previous dangerous mood and he slumped onto his swivel chair by the desk, still looking put-out, but not like he was going to throttle the next person who said something.

"Can you tell me…" the purple-haired teen took a deep breath, "Can you tell me exactly what happened?"

The redhead blinked and then focused his attention on the carpeted floor, not wanting to meet his friend's gaze. He really didn't want to recall it and all, but it was necessary, and still… his thoughts really were bouncing around the place now and he couldn't explain as to why.

"Krad-kun was really annoyed that you hadn't come to school for some reason," he began slowly, wanting to start from the very beginning so that he didn't miss any details, "And it looked like he wanted to kick you or something for being so out of it as well. And then, when we were going to your house after school, he asked me and Satoshi-kun about what this pin that you gave him was, and we didn't know." He held up a hand to stop Dark from opening his mouth and distracting him; if someone cut in now, the redhead would never be able to finish it.

"We knew that it had magical properties, but that was it. Anyway, we were close to your house when Krad-kun suddenly stopped and looked up warily, like he could see something that we couldn't. When we asked, he said it was because something was coming and, knowing him, it wasn't going to be good and then…"

"Then?" egged Dark, looking like he didn't want to hear it but had to.

"I had a migraine and the place when pitch black," mumbled Satoshi sarcastically, still clutching his head and glaring at Dark for some reason. The redhead shook his head and tried to calm his friend down, while the purple-haired teen looked ready for murder, and continued quickly.

"I think Satoshi-kun got hit by something instantly and he went out unconscious. I managed to get out of the way and Krad-kun obviously dodged, but then there was some sort of… evil laughter," Daisuke shuddered, hesitating as he relieved the memories not all that long ago. "But the scarier fact was that Krad-kun seemed to recognize whoever it was, or at least he wasn't freaking out, and then… well…"

More hesitation.

"We were attacked by… something. It was too fast for me to actually see… and that was how I got the cuts, but I was still a bit conscious and I heard something exchange between Krad-kun and some other voice. The scary one…

"Krad-kun was saying to leave us alone and that they had no right to be doing this in the first place… and then there was more laughter… some sort of magical discharge that was blinding and then… I passed out…"

Taking in these words, the purple-haired teen just stared at the younger boy like he was hoping that it was just some crazy, sick joke that was conjured up for some reason that made no sense.

"But how…"

"How can I say that Krad-kun was taken?" Daisuke laughed bitterly, as if there was some sick motif behind it all, "Because the voice said so itself. And I heard Krad-kun before that…"

This time the redhead just fell silent and said no more, but it wasn't like they were in the mood to say anything at all. Dark felt like the end of the world had finally come to its final days and that if something had happened to Krad at all, well, those people were going to pay dearly.

Satoshi was patting Daisuke lightly on the shoulder, still looking like he was suffering from his headache, but more concerned about his friend then to think of anything else. Even With seemed to have sensed the eventual depression and just sat on Daisuke's head, looking upset as well.

The sound of the front door opening was what got Dark to jerk up and exit the room. Poking his head down and leaning over the rails, he recognized who it was instantly, "Oi, Aeka!"

His sister looked up, "What?" she bellowed back, although they weren't all that far from each other to hold a yelling conversation.

"Freaking hell, how can you be so stupid?" he yelled, "Did you leave it to Nina to pick Christina up today?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, then, you might wanna talk to her!"

"What? Why!"

"Trust me, it's not gonna be good news!"

"Dark, you bastard! What the hell is going on!"

Ignoring his older sister's angry yells about an explanation, Dark returned to his room and tried to breathe calmly again. Daisuke was leaning against Satoshi's shoulder – looking completely lost – and the blue haired boy raised an eyebrow in his direction.

Dark held up a hand, "You'll see."

"Well, it looks like you've managed to collect some form of composure then," Satoshi couldn't help but observe. He got a smirk in reply to this as the older teen took his seat once more.

"Well, I've come to the conclusion that moping and being angry won't help us in the rescue attempt for Krad."

"… I was wondering how long it would take you to say that."

"But it's the only way possible!"

"And you're a complete idiot, but seeing as we have no other choice…"

"So that makes me right."

"Dream on."

"Fine, I will."

The two would have continued this argument of sorts, but Daisuke managed to put a stop to it and pointed out something that would have to be dealt with soon, "Krad-kun's parents are going to worry if we don't tell them something. But I don't think they'll take it too gladly about their son being kidnapped; so…"

This time, Dark actually caught on quickly, "We have to make up some sort of lie or excuse."

000

Aeka couldn't help but be baffled by Dark's strange behaviour. Sure, he had decided not to go to school this morning – saying something about teachers being evil and all – but he did that once in a while, so that in itself wasn't that worrying. And him yelling at her was common as well. It was what he was yelling about that had her worried this time, and she couldn't place as to why.

So he told her to check on Nina after getting home from picking Christina up. Okay, so he always had had some sort of special bond with the youngest sibling, but there was something more to it… something that wasn't supposed to happen but was… kind of worrying all the same, and she didn't like it at all.

Not only that, but that very morning – before leaving for work – Raine had been incredibly and scarily nice to her, and that was just so unnerving. This was the last thing she needed to wonder and worry about, but it looked like their randomly crazy family life was about to get worse.

Having made herself a cup of coffee to merely waste time, she poked at it slowly, watching the ripples in the liquid and then focusing her attention at the window that peered out into the garden. No one ever went out there except for Christina, so it pretty much belonged to her and she cared for it. She really was the sort with nature and loved them all dearly.

Running a hand through her hair for a moment, Aeka sighed; not wanting to hear the bad news that was bound to come but knew that there was no way to avoid it at all – unless she wanted to go off and leave the whole stinking place.

But the others looked up to her – in a way. Except for Karal, who worshipped their insane parents and Raine, the others saw her as someone they could talk to if they needed to, so… she really couldn't abandon them just because she was scared of knowing the truth.

The sound of the door slamming open was the first indication that Nina was back, and that the dreaded news was soon to come.

Leaving the kitchen, Aeka rushed out to see the girl panting and looking distressed, looking around the place like she was hoping to catch sight of something that she had lost. The older of the two grabbed her by the shoulders, meeting her in the eye.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Christina wasn't at school today," swallowed Nina, "that's what the teacher said. And we dropped her off there as well!"

Not hearing the rest of the sentence, Aeka was back at the foot of the stairs, calling Dark for a desperate family meeting.

000

"So Krad's gone as well?" Nina asked in a hushed whisper, staring at her brother like he had suddenly sprouted a second head… or a fourth, "But that was after school, not before."

"What difference does it make?" snapped Dark in annoyance, already having to recall the news three consecutive times, "The fact is that they were taken on the same day."

Thoughtful for a moment, Aeka glanced over at him, "Are you SURE that you don't have any other enemies wandering around out there? I mean, monsters tend not to hold all that much intelligence, but if there are more out there…"

"I'm sure," he muttered shortly, "And as for other enemies, all of them are dead except for the stupid voice that kept on haunting me a few weeks back."

"… Right… well then…"

There was a moment of lost words.

Fidgeting on her seat, Nina focused her attention upon staring at the bleak ceiling, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, she broke the silence once more; "Okay, so we know that they've both been… kidnapped… or something, but do we know where?"

"I can make a rough guess," Aeka said, placing the note that both Dark and Krad had read the night before, "and Raine was acting odd this morning as well, so something tells me she must know."

Nina snatched the note and scanned it quickly, becoming more pale, "I knew that Raine was a bit of a whack, but seriously… to allow our youngest sister to be pulled into this…"

"It was like what happened to Dark," concluded the older sister darkly. "… Dark?" She looked around, but he had already left the room.

000

Slamming the door behind him, Dark shook his head slowly, leaning his forehead against the smooth surface. He hated being talked about – especially about that particular situation – so he'd gone off and entered some random room that didn't belong to him.

Calming down after a moment, the teen looked up and recognised that he'd entered Christina's room. It was tidy with few possessions, although her clothes were scattered on the bed. Walking over to her desk, he opened a random drawer and began shifting through the papers.

It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for and he pulled out the piece of paper. Glancing at it briefly to confirm his thoughts, Dark left the room and returned to his own, where Daisuke and Satoshi were waiting for him.

"So?" pressed the blue-haired boy.

"So my youngest sister has disappeared off the face of the earth as well," he stated simply, "And how did the phone call go?"

A shrug; "Let's just say that if you'd been the one to call, then Mrs. Hikari would be tearing your throat out, or something equally violent."

"Ouch."

The redhead, recovering somewhat, peered at the paper in Dark's hands curiously, "What've you got there, Dark-kun?"

Waving the paper about nonchalantly, the purple-haired teen explained, "Well, I can't remember if I told you already, but Christina always seemed to hold some sort of potential for strong magic. I mean, she, for one, could talk to With, and it's always been a bit around the place.

"Anyway, I was teaching a couple of simple things as such, and this paper may help us."

Satoshi seemed to understand exactly what this meant and he raised an eyebrow, "Magical reaction and the faint traces of unformed magic." He whispered.

Dark nodded once and held up the paper, "I obviously only got her to learn some healing spells, but this piece of paper is really going out of whack magic-wise, so I think that concludes our suspicions."

Hearing this, Daisuke could only blink, perplexed, "You used a piece of paper as the medium for her spells?"

"Well, it wasn't like I was going to go and teach her how to blow up buildings and stuff, you know."

Satoshi snorted, "Yeah, leave that for you."

"Hey!"

The two glared at each other for a moment before returning to reality and what they would probably have to face. Daisuke was the one to break the silence, after looking at the piece of paper for a long time.

"So do you have any idea on where Krad-kun might have been taken, then?"

"Well, knowing them, Krad will probably be in the same place as Christina, so that makes it a lot easier to get them both out. Although it might take a few days, and I don't like the idea of running around all that much. Hm…"

"What do you mean by 'them'?" asked the blue-haired boy as he stood up, noticing that Dark looked oddly – if not disgustingly – amused. Swinging on his seat, the purple-haired teen looked out the window before returning to reality and meeting their eyes.

He gave the two younger teens a small smirk that did not mean a good thing at all, "My parents."

000

Tmp… tmp… tmp… 

He couldn't see anything, even if he wanted to. Although it might have had something due to the fact that he hadn't opened his eyes just yet, but he didn't really want to. It hurt.

_Tmp… tmp… tmp…_

Footsteps echoed eerily all around him. He could only just place where they might have come from, but at least they weren't all that close. Then again, being wherever he wasn't couldn't be a good thing in the first place, could it? He wasn't stupid and he knew what had happened before that; hopefully Daisuke and Satoshi were okay from that ordeal.

Oh, and he would have to bash Dark over the head a few times for worrying him in the first place; he had to remember that.

_Tmp… tmp… tmp…_

Oh dear, they were getting a lot louder, weren't they?

Just pretend to still be knocked out.

_Tmp… tmp… tmp._

You're not awake… you're not awake…

A sharp pain in his scalp was what made Krad's eyes snap open and, instinctively, he gathered enough energy in his right palm to blow the offender a good few meters away from him. People really had to learn to never, ever touch his hair; no matter what.

The blonde felt physically fine, surprisingly – despite having his hair pulled – but he felt a tiny bi nauseous and he glared at the person that lay crumpled on the stone floor. 'It was way too cold be here' was the first thing that ran through his head.

Taking in his surroundings, Krad was forced to believe that he was in some sort of stone building with all the bars and the stuff, yet without the consistent and annoying dripping that was usually accompanying it. Well, at least he wouldn't have to be all that worried about the mold that might come after him.

Standing up, he rubbed the top of his head and stumbled over to a small window which was the only light source at the moment. Looking out, he wasn't all that surprised when the scenery was mostly a forest of green and open plains and field; clearly he wasn't back in the city… or the town… or wherever he lived. But screw that, he was out of here.

A groan from the previous offender brought him back to his senses and he turned around slowly.

"Knew we shoulda tied him up…" grumbled the person as they staggered upwards, but just couldn't seem to support themselves right, "That HURT you know, blondie. Jackass."

"Then don't touch my hair next time," Krad snapped back, crossing his arms.

"Whoa, touché. You're a weird one. Don't know why they wanted you here in the first place," the person had really dark green hair that reached their shoulders and they looked up, "Anyway, the name's Rush."

"That's the stupidest name I've ever heard," the blonde snorted, but gave his own name anyway, ignoring the hurt look the boy shot at him, "Krad Hikari."

"Ooh… right… and my name isn't weird."

"Do you want to go through the wall or something; I can arrange that easily."

Rush held up his hands, "Okay, okay already. I think I get the picture," he suddenly became thoughtful though, "but they said that your magic would be contained… so why is it that I'm still being attacked…"

"Because you have no magic resistance," Krad concluded calmly before returning to looking out the window, as the green-haired boy – who looked about fifteen at the most – continued to try and stand up. "So mind telling me where the hell I am now?"

Leaning against the wall, Rush waved a hand around for a moment, staring at the wall opposite him, "Depends on what you mean. Taken here by force or did you agree or something?"

"By force."

"Then you're one of those _newly welcomed _guests in the Illusion Plane," he smiled bitterly, "The results of this is not going to be pretty, I can assure you."

"What, were you brought here by force as well then?"

"Yup. Twenty years ago."

"… Wait, how old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

Staring at the guy in disbelief, Krad noticed that Rush was actually smiling this time – even if it was in amusement to one's bafflement.

"Yeah, I've got elven blood in me. Or, I assume so. My parents died sometime after my birth and I was adopted from place to place – as a slave most of the time – and then I ended up here. Nice, huh?"

"I… see…"

The door close by Rush slammed opened suddenly and the green-haired guy slid over to the blonde, muttering under his breath as soldiers of some sort filed into the cell; "Don't say a thing. I'll deal with them."

Raising a brow, Krad hissed back, "Are you trying to help me or hurt me?"

"Help you," shrugged Rush, "Because if you get trapped here as well, then we're all doomed, aren't we?"

"Are you saying I can do something?"

"Positive. Or, once your friends get here, why not?"

"…"

They couldn't say anymore as the soldiers parted and a certain someone entered the room…

000

And there we have it.

**Hakudoshi-chan:** Yup. Now what are they going to do? o.O

**neko-nya:** Krad just decided to go on a picnic and killed a couple of hundred people! So yay! I really am baffled as where this is going, so yeah. Muh… it'll hit me, one day. Give it a couple of years and your computer may mature XD And now we're stuck on this chapter…

**Everto Angelus: **Whoa… you reviewed every chapter… and I thank you for that! (glomps) Yeah, my fight scenes are a bit odd, but I'm glad you really do enjoy it :D Cliffhangers are good for the mind, I believe, cause you have to think. Me… I'm just lost with what that means now. Anyway, thanks again and all!

**dimonyo-anghel: **Krad's gone now! (shrieks) And in another plane of existence! As for the demon thing… well, we'll just have to see about that, huh? And the nothings are bouncing around in indecision. They follow orders and all. XD

**Koway Oceshia: **That's good to know then :D Although I tend to confuse people a lot either way… Explanations will probably be more in the next chapter, so look out for it! And thanks!

**kyo's little koneko:** It's always a bit messed up in their life, I have to admit. Makes me see that it's not so bad in the end…


	11. Chapter Eleven: Spiral of Chaos

Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie and rather pointless concept.

Warnings: As it turns out, Dark and Krad are only FRIENDS, as well as the other two. There's a reason to this… so yeah. Oh, and the usual spelling and grammatical errors…

(Coughs) Ahem. UPDATE! And it's rather… horrible… but it is beginning to get somewhere… I just don't know where. Forgive me for bad writing?

000

"It's because of your stupidity that your magic is uncontrollable. If you thought before you acted, then this wouldn't be happening."

-- Satoshi Hiwatari

"_Sometimes it's better **not **to ask why he does those sorts of things, you know? I had to learn that the hard way…"_

-- Towa Shirube

--- Eleven: Spiral of Chaos (and Revelations…) ---

"You…" hissed Krad, eyes narrowed just slightly at the person before him, not knowing whether he should be oddly amused; or disgusted. But then again, both options were quite tempting to the blonde; as it was, he did neither, or if he was, then his face and body language didn't change a bit so it was hard to tell what he was thinking. If he was thinking anything in particular, anyway. Ur… yes. That clearly didn't make any sense, and he couldn't really give too much of a damn to care about it at all.

Smirking at the reaction – or lack thereof – Raine seemed completely unfazed at the fact that he was standing there in… well, wherever they were. "I never thought I would come face to face with the infamous Hikari-kun once more. After my dear brother-" she grimaced slightly at this "-introduced us, I must say that I never wanted to see you again. Such a weak-minded choice on his part…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" the blonde snapped, eyeing the guards around her warily; it was way too dangerous to be trying an escape already, but hey, you have to try. But there was something smug about her tone of voice as she said; like she knew something that he didn't and it was really beginning to irk him badly; and he _hated_ not knowing what was going on. "And why are you here-" (wherever _here_ was) "-in the first place? Does your family know?" Somehow, he really, really doubted it.

"I don't see why you should care about what my family know or not know," she retorted back, "But don't ever expect _dear_ Dark to come to your rescue."

"…" Well, the little theory about the oldest Belcourt Sibling being nuts had just been proven and Krad didn't really know what else to say. Rush was shifting in his side of the cell, nervous about the fact that the blonde had taken the matter into his own hands, and that stepping in now was pretty much asking for torture. Or pain of death. Or something equally annoying.

"Weak people like your sort really do need to be terminated," Raine seemed to be enjoying the attempts to bait him, because of the guards all around her and ready to protect her. "But every single time you managed to get out of it without more than a scratch. How do you do it?"

This was definitely the side of Raine that he had never wanted to see; not that he knew much about her in the first place. Their only encounter had been precisely ten seconds long due to an accidental run-in while walking down the streets. Back then she merely seemed coldly indifferent – a bit like Satoshi, now that he thought about it – but now… well, it was obvious that she hated his guts to bits. Why? He had absolutely no idea.

"I manage," he replied, deciding to play fire with fire… or at least talk back, because people who did all the talking in conversations annoyed him. "And what makes you think that I need Dark to get out of this dump?" He could easily just blow up the wall beside him and go wherever he wanted, if he was willing it so. They either didn't know it, or didn't care.

"Because," she drawled, smirking once more, "you'd never be able to get back home from here. And then they'd either drag you back screaming, or leave you to rot as a corpse."

"Like that would ever happen." The killing or dragging back part, of course; like he was thinking, it was an easy escape.

But she still had a point there. This obviously wasn't home or the town or whatever, so it was only common sense to stay put… right? Well, Krad didn't want to think so, but now wasn't the time to express what he thought of his best friend's oldest sister and although he knew for a fact that he was capable of taking on all those currently in the well, what then? And why waste so much energy in the attempt?

He'd have to sleep on that one.

Anyway, back to looking at the smirking person whoseitmathingy, "So you're the one who sent those things after me? To drag me here merely to annoy the shit out of me by your presence?"

"Harsh, boy, and I have no idea on what you're talking about," Raine replied dismissively, flicking some hair out of the way, "although I must say I was most surprised to hear that you were here at all. I really do need to discuss this with my parents."

As she finished her sentence, she moved back towards the open steel door, clearly caught in her own thoughts and figures. The guards trailed out before her and the door slammed shut behind them; leaving an eerie echo in its wake.

"Her parents…?" he repeated, mostly to himself as the echoing finally stopped ringing in his ears. He had known for a long time that Dark's parents had been part of some crazy cult and stuff, but… was this the place they had moved to? The reason why they had abandoned all their children and left them to fend for themselves? Well, he knew they were insane (and not just because of how Dark turned out) and he didn't like it.

The blonde turned to face Rush, who was doing some breathing exercises for some reason. The encounter must've shaken him up rather badly… or something. Or he was bugged at the fact that Krad had been able to deal with it himself.

"So…" Krad started into the annoying silence that had fallen over them, "do you have any idea on what that was all about?"

The green-haired part-probably-elf scratched the back of his head, thinking, "Actually, no, not really. I didn't really expect _her_ of all people to come calling… I thought it would be someone that I'd have to deal with personally. But you managed yourself pretty well, I must admit; most people are pretty freaked out by her, myself included."

The teen bit back a sarcastic comment at this, "Well then, what the hell am I supposed to do now? And I still can't work out as to why I'm here in the first place or whatever crazy reason they're doing this. When I find the people behind this, I'm going to have to pound them into a bloody pulp."

"Well, good luck on that, then," Rush fell silent for a moment, thinking, "I was kinda hoping that it'd be the guy who brought you here in the first place; you know, so I could ask questions and stuff, but I don't think he'll be around anytime soon. Ah well, I better go before someone notices my absence; cleaning duty." He grimaced, "Eat something and try to relax a bit. I'll be back soon and we can see what we can do about your situation."

"You sure don't act like you're in your twenties," commented Krad with a raised eyebrow. He watched the part-elf carefully, in case of double-dealings or false securities that led to traps, and then pain, and so forth. Rush smiled innocently at him as a reply and then waved slightly as he headed for the door.

"Can't blame you about it," he pointed briefly at the tray with food in case Krad couldn't see it or something, "You should at least know the reason behind why you're here. Well, later then."

Again, the door closed shut, but this time there was the distinct sound of bolts sliding into place and locking the blonde in. Not that he really cared at the moment, but whatever.

At this point, the most annoying factor that remained with him was that he was going to be stuck in his school uniform until who knew when. Something about that was very aggravating and he wasn't going to enjoy it one bit.

Glancing out of the thing that had been classified as a window, Krad wondered if Daisuke and Satoshi were okay, and how Dark was taking the news when he heard it. Damn, if only he knew how to get back already… this was just getting on his nerves now.

His attention was drawn back to reality as something magical seemed to vibe from his uniform front pocket. Confused, he stuck his hand in and pulled out the broach. Nice design, very powerful magic, but what the hell was it? Why had Dark given it to him and did the other guy know what it did? Because he sure didn't.

Would they even know where to look for him? What was the chance of him getting back alive?

Krad's head jerked up at the sound of a familiar voice; soft-spoken, timid, yet willing and ready for conversation if need be. He went over to the opposite side of his cell and rapped his knuckles lightly on the stone structure. It was quite thin; well, that would explain how he could hear anything at all. The voice had stopped abruptly at the sudden sound and he pressed an ear against it before speaking.

"Christina?"

000

Staring at his hands, Dark was wondering how much longer he would have to wait until something actually happened. Both Satoshi and Daisuke had been oddly silent after the rather sudden announcement and it was getting _just _that little disturbing and on his nerves.

"Hey, when was something like that so surprising that you couldn't say anything?" he finally snapped, not liking the silence at all.

The redhead glanced up from his staring-at-the-floor, somewhat apologetic, "I suppose you do have a point there. But… well, you know. It just seems so hard to take in that your own parents would be involved with such a case…" he frowned slightly at this, "Christina, perhaps, but Krad-kun? What did he ever do to them?"

"Wish I honestly knew," looking around his room, as if in hope of an answer, Dark searched for a form of speaking inspiration. Wait… where the hell did such a stupid thought enter his mind? "But Raine's been acting a lot… weirder than usual. And that's saying a lot, because she was always a bit odd in the end. I suppose my family and I'll have to tackle her on the subject ourselves."

"… Do you think," Satoshi started slowly, "that they know that Krad is capable of using magic? Or is he merely bait for Dark? To lure him into whatever messed up thoughts they've already got prepared."

Daisuke blinked at this, "Why would they want Dark-kun in the first place?"

"Don't know."

With a sigh, the purple-haired teen looked out the window and then to the clock that was sitting on his desk; "Fu… I mean, you two should be going home." Dragging both boys up by the wrists, he pushed them out of his room, "Don't want your parents worrying or something, right?"

The blunette raised an eyebrow at this, before Dark could close the door, "I would have thought that you'd want us to stay and plot and scheme on how to find Krad already."

"Hey, even I'm not that stupid," came the snorted reply, "we need to plan this carefully and all, so we'll start that tomorrow at school. Come early."

"I… see…"

"Bye, Dark-kun."

Once he was sure that the two had left his house and were on their way home, Dark slumped back against the wall and buried his head in his hands. The arrogant, ego-centric front he usually had on suddenly shattered and left him open for the world to see.

It was happening all over again and he hated it so much. Why was it that that always happened to him? It was just plain unfair, so incredibly insane, so… so annoying on his nerves. And it usually took a lot to get him annoyed at anything.

Naturally he was indignant about Christina – as that crossed the line – but taking Krad as well was like jumping over it with a pole and just that little bit too far. And they were going to pay for it.

"Dark? Are you sulking now?" Nina asked as she opened the door with some difficulty, arms laden with books, "Or is this about your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend," he replied, recovering slightly, "I don't get why you keep bringing that up… and what's with the books?"

"Reading material. I'm hoping that it'll actually be of use… for once," she grimaced at the thought of ploughing through so much but couldn't find any other way around it.

"Ah… whatever."

"Get some rest, Dark," Nina suggested, balancing the books in one arm as the other hit him over the head lightly, "the news about your boyfriend being taken must've been harsh."

"I told you, he'd not my boy--" Dark began, but she was already gone. He grumbled under his breath, unable to understand how or why Nina had managed to deduct their friendship into this matter. It was just that little bit insane, personally speaking. But then again, when she got an idea in her head, it stuck there for the rest of her life, so there was no point arguing against it.

He walked back over to his bed and lay back, thinking about what he knew. His parents were involved, Raine was involved, that stupid voice he kept hearing just _had_ to be involved with this as well, right? In the end, it was just the same conclusion and it wasn't hard to work out the resolution; throttle the answers out of Raine and go get them back. Or, if the worse came to worse, he could resort to plan B: he didn't want to, but if it came to that in the end…

But Raine would be making herself scarce now, knowing that they would all suspect her. Family could be a cruel thing, and even if she was a pain in the neck sometimes…

Unclenching his fist, amethyst eyes gazed steadily at the small orb of amber he was holding before it all happened. He knew the connection between it and the broach he had given Krad, and, as it still glowed with life, there was the vague reassurance that Krad was still alive.

But for now, he would have to talk to a couple of people.

000

Watching his friend carefully as they walked down the street together, Daisuke bit his lip in an obvious worrying gesture. Okay, so Satoshi didn't say all that much and always seemed to be detached, but the redhead knew him better than that. And at the moment, the blunette was… very no himself. It was scary.

Shadows stretched out as the sun began to make its course below the horizon, occasionally being obscured by the buildings that towered over them. Very few sounds could be heard, aside from cars roaring in one direction or another, and the gentle – yet faint – hum of conversation between people as they wended their way home.

"Hiwatari-kun?" the redhead ventured softly.

Glancing over at him, Satoshi raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement, "Yeah?"

"Are you… okay?"

"Of course I am. Why?"

Averting his gaze quickly, Daisuke stared at the concrete footpath intently, like it would give him some form of inspiration that would really help matters. "No, you're not alright. I can just tell. And that's my reason; not to mention Dark-kun's really, really worried, but that's already in the clear."

The blunette smiled just slightly at his friend's observation and shook his head; "I guess you can say that I'm worried as well, then. I mean, being attacked and having a friend – no matter how loosely based – isn't the most enjoyable of experiences. But I'm sure it'll all work out in the end." If he was just trying to reassure the redhead or wishing to believe it himself, it was hard to tell.

"Aah… okay…" this seemed to cheer Daisuke up immensely and he returned to his entirely over-optimistic self once more. "I'm sure Dark-kun will know where to go to help Krad-kun and his sister. But I'll be so glad when this is all over."

"Yeah, I agree." The two reached a fork in the road; where they had to part ways. Sapphire eyes met those of ruby as Satoshi bid his friend good night. "Take care on your way home, okay? The last thing we need is more people to worry about."

Daisuke smiled at this, "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow, Satoshi-kun."

"Right," the blunette watched as the redhead walked off before turning away and proceeding to his own place of residence. Where the horrors of brother and sister loomed over them. In truth, he didn't want Daisuke to be on his own, but the redhead was very much capable of taking care of himself. And it seemed that the monsters had already taken their intended target.

But why Krad?

He scowled unconsciously, scaring a couple of innocent bystanders; this was definitely going to take a lot of research and guessing. But he had most of the material at home, so it was time to get to work.

000

Pressing a couple of random combinations on the phone, Dark was so intent on what he was doing to notice Aeka's appearance right over his shoulder. Frowning at this, his older sister coughed under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear her.

"Hey, do you have Towa's number on you, by any chance?" Dark asked, not showing any sort of sign of being surprised and she raised an eyebrow at the question.

"Why would you want to talk to Shirube?" knowing the silver-haired girl as her classmate, she was nonplussed. And how was it that Dark knew about her in the first place? They'd never met.

He shrugged nonchalantly at this, "Never mind, I've got it. Besides, I thought you were helping Nina with researching the case, weren't you?" This time, he glanced over his shoulder to meet her eye, "Though I doubt that it'll really help in the end, you know. Oh, hello?" He grimaced slightly half a second later; "What the hell are you doing over there?" he demanded into the phone.

Deciding that the wise decision was to leave Dark with his odd phone call, Aeka walked down to where the kitchen was located. Nina sat at the table, which was currently groaning under a large number of books; most of them so old that one couldn't even read the title of them on the spine. Taking a seat opposite, the short-haired teen picked up a leather-bound book and flicked through it.

"Magic again?" she asked skeptically, putting it down and grabbing another book to scan the pages, "I don't see why you're so freaking obsessed with this. Really, I don't."

Nina glanced over the top of her book she had in her hands. "You don't? Funny, I have a lot of reasons for such a case and you know it already. It's better to be safe than sorry." She shot her older sister a serene smile, "Not to mention they explain about rituals with exact detail, which you can't get in any other book, as far as I know."

"Oh yeah?" Aeka returned the book she'd grabbed at random and walked around the table to see what Nina was actually reading at the moment, "Let's see what you've got then…"

000

"So what the hell do you want?" snapped a male's voice on the other end of the phone and Dark rolled his eyes impatiently, only vaguely noting Aeka's leaving, "We don't have all day… night… whatever."

"You know, you still haven't answered my previous question, Argentine," the violet-haired teen shot back, "What, have you taken Towa's family hostage now and waiting to shoot down all the cops that come your way?"

"You've got an odd sense of humor, you know."

"Come on, I know it's true. You can tell me the truth."

"As if, bastard."

"Then did you ask Towa out and she rejected you with a pitchfork?"

"No."

"Then what's the reason? I've got a million theories floating in my head at the moment."

"God forbid it. Anyway, we're _trying_," there was a bite of impatience in the other's voice, "to finish a school assignment over here, if you really need to know. Damn medieval hierarchy is bugging the absolute hell out of me."

Dark stifled a snigger at this, "Aw… poor little Argentine," he said, voice laced with mock-pity, "But could I speak to Towa now? It's kinda urgent at the moment. Besides, why were you answering the phone in the first place?" He had to admit it _was_ kind of suspicious.

"She was kicking the shit out of one of the other students who decided group work didn't involve them," Argentine muttered; "Wait, I think she's finished pounding them into a pulp, so I'll go get her."

There was the distinct sound of the phone being set on a solid surface, and the faint sounds of people arguing met the teen's ears as he waited. He then heard louder yelling and was taken by surprise when a cheery female's voice reached his ears rather unexpectedly.

"Hi Dark! What's with the honor of calling me after all these years?"

"We're at critical point," he replied grimly, before pouring out the entire story and their current situation. Towa's smile would have been wiped out at an instant, and he expected it as so. She was silent after this and Dark waited for a minute. "So?" he prompted.

"Oh, yeah, well," Towa seemed to pull herself together quickly, "I suppose we should've known this was going to happen eventually, right?"

"Yeah, but," with a groan, he leaned against the wall and stared at the wallpaper in front of him blankly, "why? I just don't get it anymore? They keep doing it, they keep hurting people, and they don't get anywhere."

"Don't worry. We'll get them back," she reassured him soothingly, "We'll meet you tomorrow at 13 hours, 'kay? I doubt anyone in your family'll be able to spit it out anyway. And stop staring at the wall like a deranged moron."

He agreed with her about the family, and wondered how she knew he was staring at the wall, "I'll have company with me this time, though."

"Oh? Is that really okay? It's dangerous."

"Don't worry," he smirked, imitating her voice just slightly, "Daisuke and Satoshi are well aware of the situation and know how to survive in this messed-up world. See you there."

He hung up and headed back towards his bedroom. Nina had a point; he was pretty tired now and the whole Krad-being-kidnapped-as-well-as-Christina's-disappearance revelation had jerked him around a lot. And it hurt like hell.

Moonlight streamed into his room, books untouched since the day before. His clothes had been thrown in a haphazard pile in one of the corners, but he couldn't have cared less about it. Dark flopped onto his bed, the door clicking shut behind him as he closed his eyes. He knew for a fact that Krad was well able to take care of himself, but he still couldn't help but feel just that bit _worried_ about the blonde in the end.

Tomorrow was definitely going to be a long, tiring day, and there was the last of his conscience thoughts as Dark finally drifted off to sleep.

000

It was the annoying, if not thoroughly insistent, racket of birds singing as the early morning sun rose slowly and steadily - shedding it's light to welcome another day - that woke him up early. Of course, if it had been the same day, hen it would still be dark… or something.

Sitting up abruptly, the purple-haired teen stared out the window blankly, thoughts bouncing backwards and forwards rather pointlessly for many reasons that didn't seem to make all that much sense in the end; not that it really made much of a difference, of course.

There was a slight knock on his door and Aeka pushed it open, frowning to herself; "I was beginning to wonder when you were finally going to shut the sleeping talking up. And only to find you awake and in zombie mode."

"What? Why? Was I sleeping for more than one day?" he yawned, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to keep his eyes open; part him was strongly refusing to stay awake and, sadly, that part was his brain.

"No, but as I said, you were talking in your sleep… incredibly loudly," she replied stiffly, allowing herself entrance to his room, "most of it was just broken conversation that made no sense whatsoever, but you mentioned that Krad of yours a lot. So I, in particular, was worried about your psychological sanity. Nina thought it was kind of cute, being her."

He blinked at this, until his brain finally clicked into place, "What!"

Aeka shrugged, not the least disturbed with his reaction, "Not that it makes much of a difference in the end. But Raine never came back home and we haven't got any solid fact on this whole ritual thingy that they all seem to be involved with."

"Yeah… and?"

"You're _still_ not going to talk about it?" her frown deepened at this and she crossed her arms, "We're not stupid, Dark. And we know that you know something very vital that could help us get Christina back before something horrible happens. So spit it out."

Having completely woken up at this point, Dark sat up and swung his legs around, regarding her thoughtfully, "You know the dangers of magic-wielding, don't you?"

She nodded shortly, "But that's not the poin--"

"Well, there's your answer. It's staring at you right in the face and you refuse to accept it as the horrid truth," snorting impatiently, he walked over, pulled his door open wide and ushered her out, "Look, leave the rest to me and those kids Raine told me never to trust. Make yourself useful by keeping an eye out for Raine. She's bound to walk in one day while I'm gone."

He closed the door in her surprised face and there was a moment of shocked silence before she began to hammer on his door rather loudly; the fact that it didn't break was a mystery to him but he didn't dwell on it for long.

Ignoring the shouting completely, he dumped a couple of things into his schoolbag, discarding all educational material in the process. Deciding that was all he needed, he climbed out the window, closed it and somehow managed to scale down the side of his house without breaking his neck.

Stretching, Dark made his way towards the school. He would have to do a little bit of his own look-around before the appointed time, as well as the fact that he now had to convince Daisuke and Satoshi to accompany him in something most definitely suicidal.

Ah well, that was just how life worked.

Now… there had to be a payphone somewhere…

000

_Ring ring ring ring ring ring…_

One part of Satoshi's brain told him it was the alarm clock and to throw it out the window, but the other noted that he didn't even use an alarm clock anymore, and even if he did, it was located in his bedroom and he was sitting in the living room.

Well, that wasn't exactly correct, seeing as he was now sprawled on the couch after reading too much and dropping off before he knew it so… well, what was the point of all this?

_Ring ring ring ring ring…_

Right, something had woken him up and was now bugging the hell out of him. Rubbing his eyes and pulling his glasses off, the blunette blinked blearily at nothing in particular as the something kept ringing.

It was a couple of seconds later that he worked out that it was the phone.

"Dammit…" he muttered, shoving his glasses back on, stumbling over to the hallway, and finally locating the machinery. He was about to throw it out the window, or at least into a wall, but as it came off the hook, he noticed Dark's voice.

"Anyone there? Hello--" yup, he was as annoying as ever.

"What?" Satoshi asked, stifling a yawn.

"I'm asking you and Daisuke to skip school, what else?" was the reply, in which he was now very, very confused, "Look, I've already called him and he's agreed, so just wait by the school gates. We have a lot to talk about."

Sapphire eyes shifted over to the coffee table located in the living room, which was strewn with papers everywhere, "Yes… we do have a lot to talk about. Okay, I'll be there."

"Great, thanks!"

There was a click as Dark hung up and Satoshi yawned. Great… they just never got a moment's peace… seriously.

000

I actually don't know where I wanted this to go. So it went on its own and I just typed. And this is the end result. Bleh…

Oh yes: Dark - denial, denial, denial XD

**Hakudoshi-chan:** lol, I didn't even think of that XD But then again, Rush is kinda like an old-ish man… uhm… elf-dude. I still have to work out his personality :P I can't believe I updated…

**neko-nya:** Poor review button from… four months back about XD wow, it's been that long? Well… I've done worse… I think… kidnap-ing-ness--! And then everyone is doomed XD

**Koway Oceshia: **Cliffy. Cliffy-running-off-ness. And we have yet to meet Dark's parents (dang, I knew I was missing something XO). I'd update sooner… but my brain doesn't like me… XD

**Everto Angelus:** She disappeared XP On with the story!... Kinda…

**Makurayami Ookami: **Hm… Krad's a strong-willed person (and probably just that tiny bit homicidal) and who wouldn't be annoyed?

**Banzaiinu1: **Thanks for the review (glomps) XD Glad you liked the rather-pointlessly-insane concept :) Hope you'll be back for more XD Although I am rather slow at updating… hrm…

**eimiaj: **At this point, I'm trying to make a bit more sense to everything I've already thrown in. And I think it's working… a bit. The pin's very… magical… (maybe I should add an explosive device to it? Nah…) Thanks for the review!


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